NASA Discovers Two New Planets In Milky Way
August 27th, 2010 - 7:32 pm ICT by GDBy Gina Gomez
Aug 27, (THAINDIAN NEWS) In what is being considered as one of the most amazing scientific discoveries, the NASA officials have announced that NASA’a Kepler telescope, launched from Cape Canaveral in March 2009 has discovered two giant sized planets orbiting another star. The space agency officials announced the news yesterday. William Borucki, the science principal investigator for the Kepler Mission said that this is the first discovery of multiple planets orbiting the same star.
The NASA official announced the news on a teleconference from NASA Ames Research Center in California. The main function of Kepler telescope is to look for the signs of planets passing in front of the stars, the agency says. William Borucki in his statement said that the two planets slightly smaller than Saturn is about 2,000 light years away in the constellation Lyra. NASA says that the two planets named Kepler 9b and 9c, show a clear gravitational interaction and they are very close to the star they are orbiting. William Borucki added that the habitat zone of the planets is actually quite “far out” from these stars and hence the planets are very hot.
On the other hand, the scientists have also discovered a smaller celestial body orbiting the star and it is about 1.5 times the size of the earth. However the NASA scientists have not yet confirmed it as a planet though it is close to the star. William Borucki also said that the Kepler telescope’s observation will provide the scientists new information about a system of orbiting planets which is different from the solar system. It garners clues about the composition of these planets and actually helps to search for other planets in the planetary system even though the planets do not transit. NASA said that Kepler will continue its mission for another three and a half years.
- Scientists discover first Earth-Size planets outside the Milky Way - Dec 21, 2011
- Earth-sized planets found beyond solar system - Dec 21, 2011
- Kepler telescope finds new planetary system - Aug 27, 2010
- NASA Finds 2 New Planets In Milky Way - Aug 27, 2010
- Nasa space telescope spots odd new solar system - Feb 03, 2011
- NASA's Kepler space telescope discovers 5 earth-like exoplanets - Jan 05, 2010
- 50bn planets in Milky Way, estimates first cosmic census - Feb 21, 2011
- Cosmic census estimates 50 billion planets in our galaxy - Feb 21, 2011
- Alien find likelier after NASA finds evidence of over 1,200 more planets - Feb 03, 2011
- Probe finds two Saturn-sized planets orbiting single star - Aug 27, 2010
- Smallest rocky planet outside solar system found - Jan 11, 2011
- Earth-like planet found - Dec 06, 2011
- Kepler 10b planet discovered - Jan 12, 2011
- Five more exoplanets found in Milky Way - Jan 05, 2010
- NASA discovers first planetary system with two planets transiting same star - Aug 27, 2010
Tags: ames research center, cape canaveral, celestial body, constellation lyra, first discovery, gina gomez, gravitational interaction, kepler mission, light years, nasa ames research, nasa ames research center, nasa official, nasa officials, nasa scientists, planetary system, scientific discoveries, size of the earth, sized planets, space agency officials, two new planets