Home and City || Version 2.0. Many Earths Out There? Nearly All Kepler Planets May Be The Real Deal. MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Virtually all of the alien planet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope may turn out to be the real deal, a new study suggests. Researchers announced Monday, Dec. 5, that Kepler has detected 2,326 potential alien worlds in its first 16 months of operation, including 48 in their stars' habitable zones — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water, and maybe even life, to exist.
While the vast majority of these planets have yet to be confirmed, 99.9 percent or so may end up making the cut, according to the study. That would mean Kepler's finds to date would more than quadruple the number of known alien worlds, which currently stands at a little more than 700. Assessing Kepler's false-positive rate Kepler detects alien planets by what's known as the transit method. Kepler needs to witness three transits to flag a potential alien planet. Most of the brightness dips Kepler detects are indeed caused by planets, researchers think. Search. Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive.
The Planets. Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine.