Kepler from NASA has spotted 18 new planets the size of the Earth, but only one merit to dream – BGR



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NASA's Kepler Space Telescope may be dead, but that does not mean that the wealth of data it has collected still does not offer unexpected surprises. A new research paper written by scientists from the Max Planck Institute, Georg August University and the Sonneberg Observatory is an excellent reminder. It reveals the existence of 18 (!) Totally new Exoplanets and so far unknown to astronomers.

The discovery was made after a careful analysis of Kepler's data using a new, more sensitive method that, according to its creators, is capable of discovering tens or even hundreds of totally new worlds orbiting distant stars.

Generally, the hardware for searching exoplanets of data is analyzed to find changes in the luminosity of stars that can indicate the presence of a planet. However, it can be difficult to locate smaller planets, such as those of similar size to the Earth.

"Standard search algorithms try to identify sudden drops in brightness," says Dr. Rene Heller, the first author of the research published in Astronomy and astrophysicssaid in a statement. "In reality, a star disk appears slightly darker at the edge than in the center. When a planet moves in front of a star, it therefore initially blocks less stellar light than in the middle of the transit. The maximum gradation of the star occurs at the center of the transit, just before the star becomes progressively brighter again, "he explains.

Eighteen new planets are a sacred discovery, but almost none of them would be habitable as we understand it. In fact, 17 of them are probably too hot for liquid water to exist on their surface. This is a huge disappointment for those of us who dream of discovering a true "foreign" world with unique life forms.

This unique planet, called EPIC 201238110.02, is a little larger than the Earth but remains in the realm of what astronomers consider to be an "Earth". It's at the proper distance from its host star that it could probably withstand surface water. This so-called "Goldilocks" area is exactly where the Earth is and it is thought that the planets in this area of ​​their respective stars are our best chance to find an extraterrestrial life.

In the future, researchers will focus on discovering other unknown worlds and we hope that other potentially habitable planets will be there.

Image Source: NASA / JPL

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