NASA has confirmed that over 1,248 new exoplanets have been discovered and now verified by its Kepler spacecraft.
NASA, in a press briefing today, officially confirmed that an additional 1,248 objects first discovered by its Kepler spacecraft have been confirmed to be new exoplanets, bringing the total figure of verified exoplanets over 2,000.
Speaking on the verification of Kepler’s findings, Tim Morton, a research scholar at Princeton University, stated that “We have more than doubled the number of known exoplanets smaller than the size of Neptune.”
Read: NASA‘s Kepler telescope enters emergency mode
Kepler’s findings will assist astronomers determine how planets similar to Earth exist in the universe, and more importantly, which planets among them could support life.
Kepler and other telescopes have so far located over 5,000 potential exoplanets, with more than half of that figure at 3,200 seeing official verification at present. A majority of confirmed exoplanets so far have come as a result of NASA’s Kepler mission.
NASA has revealed that a more than 550 of the 1,248 exoplanets could potentially be rocky in nature, with nine of that number being situated in a habitable zone that could potentially sustain human – or alien – life.
The process of verifying an exponent involves human researchers painstakingly validating ‘transit-signals’ received from the vessel, which can be sued to estimate the size, mass, and orbit of a potential exoplanet.
NASA aims to launch its new James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, which will be the most advanced space telescope ever made. The agency hopes to further its discoveries made so far and hopes to find more habitable exoplanets in the near future.
Read: Kepler telescope discovers “œmost Earth-like“ planet yet
What are your thoughts on Kepler’s discovery of 1,248 new exoplanets? Are we anywhere closer to discovering extraterrestrial life? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!
Follow Bryan Smith on Twitter: @bryansmithSA
Source: The Verge
