Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New Exoplanets


Yesterday at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Association the team from the Kepler mission announced the discovery of five new exoplanets. Palomar's 200-inch Hale Telescope was one of several ground-based telescopes that helped to confirm the discoveries. These discoveries came from just the first few weeks of observations and many, many more exoplanets are expected as the mission continues.

In addition to the five new exoplanets the team also announced the discovery of what might be a new class of astronomical object. Stay tuned as the science from this mission is just beginning.

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