Nasa uncovers 18 hidden ‘Earth-sized planets’ lurking outside our Solar System – and one ‘offers hope for LIFE’
The scientists think their new method could help them find more than 100 other Earth-sized worlds
NEW planets beyond the Solar System have been discovered by scientists using a new technique.
The 18 exoplanets are Earth sized and include the smallest known planet so far and one that looks like it has the right conditions for life.
An exoplanet is a planet that is found outside of the Solar System and orbiting a star.
Over 4,000 of them have been discovered so far, largely by Nasa's Kepler space telescope, but 96% of these were bigger than Earth.
The whole point of the Kepler space telescope mission was to identify Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars.
Smaller methods are much harder to spot and this is why the discovery of 18 of them with a new method is so groundbreaking.
Dr. Rene Heller from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and the first author of the study explained: "Standard search algorithms attempt to identify sudden drops in brightness.
"In reality, however, a stellar disk appears slightly darker at the edge than in the centre.
"When a planet moves in front of a star, it therefore initially blocks less starlight than at the mid-time of the transit. The maximum dimming of the star occurs in the centre of the transit just before the star becomes gradually brighter again."
The algorithm the researchers have created is more specific because it takes into account that small exoplanets might not have that much of a dimming effect on the star they are orbiting and therefore might go unnoticed.
The researchers tested their new algorithm on data collected by the Kepler space telescope and found the 18 new exoplanets.
Most of these new planets were orbiting their stars very closely and were extremely hot apart from one, which is a "favourable distance" from its star and could be very similar to Earth.
The researchers think that their method will enable them to find more than 100 other Earth-sized worlds in the data of the Kepler primary mission and also help future missions on the quest to find new habitable planets and alien life.
What is an exo-planet?
Here's what you need to know...
- An exoplanet is a planet that is located outside of our Solar System and one that is orbitting its own star, like how Earth orbits the Sun
- They are very hard to see with telescopes because they are often hidden by the brightness of their star
- Nasa sent the Kepler space telescope into orbit with the purpose of finding Earth sized exoplanets that might support life
- Over 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered so far and more missions to find even more exoplanets are planned
- A good way to spot an exoplanet is to look for "wobbly" stars because a disruption to star light can indicate that a planet is orbitting it and therefore blocking out light on occasion
- Expoplanets are very common in the Universe and the more we find that look like Earth the closer we get to knowing if we're not alone out there
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Do you think there is life out in the Universe? Let us know in the comments...
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