• Astronomers Catalog Planets That May Be Earthlike

    From baalke@1:2320/100 to sci.space.news on Mon Aug 22 02:28:45 2016
    From Newsgroup: sci.space.news


    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6586

    Astronomers Catalog Planets That May Be Earthlike
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    August 4, 2016

    Using public data collected by NASA's Kepler mission, astronomers have catalogued the planet candidates that may be similar to our third rock
    from the sun. The tabulation of candidates will help astronomers focus
    their research efforts in the search for life.

    The analysis, led by Stephen Kane, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at San Francisco State University in California, highlights
    20 candidates in the Kepler trove that are less than twice the size of
    Earth and orbit their star in the conservative habitable zone -- the range
    of distances where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. Of these 20 candidates, nine have been previously investigated
    and determined to be verified planets, including notables like Kepler-62f, Kepler-186f, Kepler-283c, Kepler-296f and Kepler-442b.

    The results are presented in a paper accepted by the Astrophysical Journal. For a listing of the candidates and their properties, the paper can be reviewed at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.00620.

    NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley manages the
    Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
    at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

    News Media Contact
    Elizabeth Landau
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
    818-354-6425
    elizabeth.landau@jpl.nasa.gov

    Michele Johnson
    Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
    650-604-6982
    michele.johnson@nasa.gov

    Written by Michele Johnson

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