Nasa to announce new Kepler Mission discovery

[NoAngel2u]

Live feed here if you care to hear about it. More commentary once the info is out. Oops just started. brb

[NoAngel2u]

So Kepler has been searching for exoplanets. Today they reported they have discovered a planet that is orbiting an eclipsing binary star system, about the size of Saturn. Much like Luke Skywalker's home planet, if you were a resident Kepler 16b, you too would see 2 suns just like Luke did. Would seem planets around binary stars are common.

They had a little film made of course to illustrate it. Was interesting to see that the smaller star actually orbits the larger brighter star. I always wondered how that worked out, and how planets were influenced in their orbits around a dual start system.

[NoAngel2u]

Here's a link to the Nasa Kepler Mission page. Very interesting stuff if you are interested.

The scientific objective of the Kepler Mission is to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems. This is achieved by surveying a large sample of stars to:

• Determine the percentage of terrestrial and larger planets that are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of stars
• Determine the distribution of sizes and shapes of the orbits of these planets
• Estimate how many planets there are in multiple-star systems
• Determine the variety of orbit sizes and planet reflectivities, sizes, masses and densities of short-period giant planets
• Identify additional members of each discovered planetary system using other techniques
• Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems.

[HanginAround]

I think this is very cool.

Finding planets inside the 'Goldilocks' zone-not too hot,not too cold-will be key to our continuation as a species.If we last that long...

Both the Moon & Mars will only be temporary stopping points.Neither has a magnetic field,so unless we colonize under their surfaces,it'll be like living in a microwave.

Im an avid follower of all this.Thanx for posting the links!