Science Source Stock Photo - Kepler Planet Candidates, 2015

Kepler Planet Candidates, 2015

Description: The distribution of Kepler planet candidates by size as of January 2015. As of January 2015, Kepler and its follow-up observations had found 1,013 confirmed exoplanets in about 440 stellar systems, along with a further 3,199 unconfirmed planet candidates.Four planets have been confirmed through Kepler's K2 mission. In November 2013, astronomers reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarfs within the Milky Way. It is estimated that 11 billion of these planets may be orbiting Sun-like stars. The nearest such planet may be 3.7 parsecs (12 ly) away, according to the scientists. On January 6, 2015, NASA announced the 1000th confirmed exoplanet discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope. Four of the newly confirmed exoplanets were found to orbit within habitable zones of their related stars: three of the four, Kepler-438b, Kepler-442b and Kepler-452b, are near-Earth-size and likely rocky; the fourth, Kepler-440b, is a super-Earth.

Credit:

NASA Ames/Wendy Stenzel/Science Source

Unique identifier: SS2711400

Legacy Identifier: JC6229

Type: Image

Size: 4650px × 3100px (~41 MB)

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