...the galaxy, that is. NASA's Kepler mission just announced that they have discovered 461 new planets. Four of the new planets are less than twice the size of Earth ("super-Earths") and orbit in their sun's habitable zone, the orbit where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet. Since last year, Kepler has increased its planet-discovery by 20&percent; and now totals 2,740 potential planets orbiting 2,036 stars. The categories that saw the most dramatic increases are the Earth-sized and super-Earth-sized candidates, which grew by 43 and 21 percent, respectively:

Click the image to see the Astronomy.com story.

I suspect we'll end up discovering that most stars have a crew much like that of our Sun: Mostly gas giants in the outer reaches, and mostly little rocky worlds up close.


Click the image to see the Astronomy.com story.

Chris