SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
posted by
mattie_p
on Thursday February 27 2014, @02:31PM
from the I-bet-that's-all-of-them-now dept.
from the I-bet-that's-all-of-them-now dept.
kef writes:
"NASA's Kepler mission has doubled the number of known planets outside of our solar system. In what can only be described as a "bonanza", 715 new planets have been reported thanks to the Kepler space telescope's planet-hunting mission. Using a new method for verifying potential planets led to the volume of new discoveries from Kepler, which aims to help humans search for other worlds that may be like Earth."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
NASA Kepler Telescope Discovers 715 New Planets
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 27 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
You're growing out of some of your problems, but there are others that
you're growing into.
(Score: 1) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday February 28 2014, @05:31AM
IANAA (I am not an astrophysicist..obviously!)
So I have a question to pose to those of you who understand this dicipline.
I notice many of these planets have an orbital period (listed in sidreal days, which I understand to be 23 hr 56 min 4.09 sec)that seem to be ridiculously quick.
One example: GJ 667Cf which is second on the list (and not the shortest by a long shot) has an orbital period of 39.026 SD. I realize the star is much smaller, dimmer and has a habital zone much closer to the star itself, but, I have trouble wrapping my head around the seemingly lightning fast orbital speed. Am I just not comprehending the scale, or are some of these exoplanets just moving faster than anything in our own solar system?
Personally, I think I just don't understand the maths here. Enlightenment awaits.....
Link to list of exoplanets
http://www.planetarybiology.com/exoexplorer_planet s/ [planetarybiology.com]
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.