NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope continues to expand the boundary of mankind’s understanding of space.

Last week, NASA announced that it has confirmed Kepler’s discovery of 1,284 new planets orbiting distant stars. Of this cornucopia of exo-planets, NASA believes nine are potentially habitable for life as we understand it. An estimated 550 are rocky planets with 100 of those clocking in at around Earth-size or slightly smaller. Planets that are solid and rocky as opposed to gaseous are more likely to harbor the conditions that will be conducive to life.

Two Earth-size alien worlds look especially promising: Kepler-1638b and Kepler-1229b. One is in the sweet spot of a “Goldilocks zone” of a nearby star; the other is on the inner edge of that zone circling its star. There’s a lot of excitement about such worlds because they indicate that Earth-like planets may be more common than once believed. The known number of planets has effectively doubled, thanks to the probe’s relentless scanning of nearby stars in our Milky Way.

While ground-based telescopes have yet to confirm Kepler’s discoveries, there is little doubt that it will happen. The science is solid and based upon meticulous observation of light fluctuations by stars as the planets transit past them. In capturing these fluctuations, Kepler has been an invaluable window into our cosmic neighborhood.

Copy the Story Link