Photo gallery: Our favorite (so far) exoplanet discoveries

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ESO, exoplanet, Gliese 667 cc, Kepler, Kepler 22-b, KOI-727, Super Earth, Tatooine, triple star system, water world

We were definitely getting spoiled. It seemed like every other day we heard about a new planetary discovery. But then this past month, we’ve experienced somewhat of a drought.

Then some refreshing news: The discovery of a new system, KOI-727, and its two exoplanets (planets found outside of our Solar System). Oh thank goodness! We here at Space Oddities needed a planetary fix.

So far, 767 planetary discoveries have been made. Here are some we’ve reported on since we began Space Oddities less than a year ago. Enjoy!

The super-Earth Gliese 667 Cc

This artist’s impression shows a sunset seen from the super-Earth Gliese 667 Cc. The brightest star in the sky is the red dwarf Gliese 667 C, which is part of a triple star system. The other two more distant stars, Gliese 667 A and B appear in the sky also to the right. Astronomers have estimated that there are tens of billions of such rocky worlds orbiting faint red dwarf stars in the Milky Way alone. Caption and image courtesy of the ESO/L. Calçada

Gliese 667 Cc, which has a similar mass to our planet and thus called a super-Earth, is located in a triple star system in the constellation of Scorpius. Scientists have called it the Holy Grail of exoplanet research.

Read more about this super-Earth here.

Small and scorching

Courtesy of NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

In December of 2011, NASA announced the discovery of two Earth-sized planets that reside in a pretty odd solar system. The planets are part of the Kepler 20 system, which also includes three larger planets. Above is an artist’s conception of Kepler-20e.

Read more about the planets here.

GJ1214b – the water world

Courtesy of NASA, ESA, and D. Aguilar (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

This super-Earth – dubbed GJ1214b – is about 40 light-years away and is enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere.

Read more about the water world here.

A pair of stars

Courtesy of Lynette Cook / extrasolar.spaceart.org

Illustrated above, the Kepler-35 system consists of a Saturn-sized planet orbiting a pair of stars, according to NASA. The stars are much cooler than our Sun and the planet – Kepler 35b – orbits the suns every 131 days.

Read more about the Kepler-35 system here.

Small worlds

Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Here’s an artist’s conception of the KOI-961 system with three planets that all smaller than Earth. The smallest of the three planets, called KOI-961.03, is about the size of Mars and actually located the farthest from the star, according to NASA. It is pictured here in the foreground.

Read more about KOI-961 here.

More super-Earths

Courtesy of the ESO/M. Kornmesser

This artist’s impression shows a super-Earth orbiting the Sun-like star HD 85512 in the southern constellation of Vela. This planet is one of 16 super-Earths discovered by European Southern Observatory (ESO) using the HARPS instrument.

Read more about the huge discovery here.

The invisible world

Courtesy of David A. Aguilar (CfA)

The “invisible” world Kepler-19c is slightly more than twice the diameter of Earth and is probably a “mini-Neptune,” according to scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Nothing is known about Kepler-19c, other than that it exists.

Read more about the invisible world here.

Kepler 22-b

This artist’s conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Courtesy of NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

The planet, called Kepler 22-b, is a bit more than twice the size of Earth and 600 light years away. This would be Kepler’s first confirmed planet in the Goldilocks – or habitable – zone. This means that the planet is situated far enough away from the sun where it’s not too hot, or too cold. But some don’t agree.

Read more about the controversial Kepler 22-b here.

Star Wars in real life

Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt

NASA’s Kepler mission discovered a world where two suns set over the horizon, according to NASA. The planet, called Kepler-16b, is the most “Tatooine-like” planet ever found. If you didn’t know, Tatooine is the name of Luke Skywalker’s home in Star Wars.

Read more about Kepler-16b here.

The dark planet

Courtesy of David A. Aguilar

According to the Center for Astrophysics, “The distant exoplanet TrES-2b, shown here in an artist’s conception, is darker than the blackest coal. This Jupiter-sized world reflects less than one percent of the light that falls on it, making it blacker than any planet or moon in our solar system. Astronomers aren’t sure what vapors in the planet’s superheated atmosphere cloak it so effectively.”

Read more about the dark planet here.

Want more exoplanet news? Click here to read about other planetary discoveries.

Exoplanet update: 11 new solar systems, a Super-Earth, and a water world

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constellation of scorpius, GJ 1214b, Gliese 667Cc, Habitable Exoplanet Catalog, Kepler, Kepler mission, solar systems, Super Earth, triple star system, waterworld

The past 30 days have been fun.  It started exactly one month ago today when NASA announced the discovery of 11 solar systems that host 26 planets.

According to NASA, 15 of the planets are between the size of Earth and Neptune. Other than that, we don’t really know much. It’s going to take some more time to determine whether the planets are rocky like Earth, or gaseous like Neptune.

“Prior to the Kepler mission, we knew of perhaps 500 exoplanets across the whole sky,” according to this release. “Now, in just two years staring at a patch of sky not bigger than your fist, Kepler has discovered more than 60 planets and more than 2,300 planet candidates.”

The artist's rendering depicts the multiple planet systems discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. Image credit: NASA Ames/Jason Steffen, Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics

Yes, we all know that NASA’s Kepler mission is amazing. In fact, it’s probably my favorite all-time mission. It has found some fascinating planets, but this discovery was a bit lackluster (besides the announcement’s power-in-numbers factor).

It seems like I wasn’t the only one who thought so. I didn’t read a lot of stories about it. Or maybe I’m just missing a lot. I have been burning the midnight oil at my new job. Ok, Ok. I don’t want to knock the discovery because it is pretty cool, but as we’ve been realizing more and more lately, there are probably billions of billions of planets out there. And I just can’t wait until they find the BIG one.

Then, not even a week later, it happened. Scientists found another super-Earth. (A planet with a mass similar to our planet.)

Not only was the mass similar, but the planet – found orbiting a triple star system in the constellation of Scorpius – is located smack in the middle of the habitable zone, according to my handy Exoplanet App.   The habitable zone – or the “Goldilocks zone” – is a place where it’s not too hot or too cold. It’s a region where liquid water could exist.

The planet is called Gliese 667Cc. If the planet, “has a rocky surface—which is predicted for planets less than ten times Earth’s mass—and an atmosphere, it could support liquid water and maybe life” according to this National Geographic article.

This image shows to scale the only four potential habitable exoplanets so far, HD 85512 b, Gliese 581 d, Kepler-22 b, and Gliese 667C c compared with Earth and Mars using the Earth Similarity Index, or ESI (number below the names). This number is a measure of Earth-likeness where Earth is the standard of comparison with an ESI value equal to one. Exoplanets with values above 0.8 can be considered Earth-like planets but those with values down to about 0.7 might still be habitable by microbial life. HD 85512 b, Gliese 581 d, and Kepler-22 b are shown here with dense atmospheres covered with water clouds. Gliese 581 d and Gliese 667C c look redder because they orbit red dwarf stars. Caption and image courtesy of The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR Arecibo.

The last time we heard about a super-Earth, it wasn’t without controversy.

But this planet is getting some play. The guys over at the Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) are including it in its “Current Potential Habitable Worlds” chart. It ranks #2!

“Gliese 667C c is the best candidate so far of an Earth-like exoplanet,” according to the PHL.

Comparison of the current four potential habitable worlds with Earth and Mars using the Earth Similarity Index (ESI), a measure of Earth-likeness. Gliese 667C c is the best candidate so far of an Earth-like exoplanet. CREDIT: PHL @ UPR Arecibo.

That is pretty awesome.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, we hear news of a planet unlike anything scientists have ever seen before – at least according to this article.

A new class of planet has emerged: A water world covered with a thick, steamy atmosphere. It’s larger than Earth and has much more water, but much less rock.  The planet, called GJ 1214b, is located about 40 light-years from Earth.

GJ1214b, shown in this artist’s view, is a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. New observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show that it is a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. Caption and rendering courtesy of NASA, ESA, and D. Aguilar (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

“The high temperatures and high pressures would form exotic materials like ‘hot ice’ or ‘superfluid water’, substances that are completely alien to our everyday experience,” according to the release.

It’s only a matter of time before we find … the one. Happy planet hunting!

Kepler: The search for planets outside our Solar System

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Ames Research Center, Destination Innovation, Exoplanets, Kepler, NASA

Look what I found. This, I gotta say, is pretty sweet!

It’s a six-minute video about the Kepler mission and the search for planets outside of our Solar System. You can learn all about the mission, what it’s found so far (dozens of confirmed planets, thousands of candidates), and how it works.

“Kepler has been a game changer in exoplanet science.” Yeah, well we known that! See here, here, here and here.

According to the video, scientists will be working on Kepler data for “decades” to come. “What we will end up with is a deeper understanding of the abundance of Earth- sized, potentially habitable worlds in our galaxy.”

Watch the video. It’s the first episode of Destination Innovation, a series that explains some of the projects over at the NASA Ames Research Center.

684 and counting – Astronomers are finding more planets, faster

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Diamond planet, Discoveries, ESO, European Southern Observatory, exoplanet, Kepler, La Silla Observatory, NASA, Super Earth

There’s been a lot of news about planets lately.

Over the past 9 months, over 160 exoplanets – or planets outside of our solar system – have been found. Those discoveries include a diamond planet, an invisible one, and another darker than the blackest coal. That surpasses figures from 2010, where 110 exoplanets were confirmed.

This week, the number of known exoplanets increased tremendously.  Over 80 were confirmed, according to scientists in several worldwide organizations. This increase in planetary discovery certainly had to do with the second Extreme Solar Systems conference. The six-day event, which took place Sept. 11 to 17, brought together hundreds of exoplanet researchers and enthusiasts.

On the second day of the conference, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) came out with a huge discovery. It had found 50 exoplanets, including one in the “Goldilocks” – or habitable – zone. That means life could be supported on that planet. Also, among the 50 included 16 “Super-Earths,” or planets whose mass is one to 10 times that of Earth.

Big. Very big.

The ESO certainly started the week off with a bang. The discovery was due to the HARPS system, a spectrograph on one of the world’s largest telescopes. Since it began planet hunting in 2003, HARPS has help find 150 planets.

“How is anyone going to top that announcement,” I thought.

The next day, UK astronomers from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) team announced that it had found 23 gas giants, or planets much like our Jupiter.

Ok. Nice showing. But what, or who, is WASP?  Does it even matter? 23 isn’t going to beat 50.

So we waited for NASA. What did it have up its sleeve? NASA sent out a press release that indicated there was going to be an exoplanet announcement with the Lucas Film guys. Hmmm? Lucas Films? What is going on? (NASA also announced that it had come up with a plan for deeper, manned space travel, i.e. Mars, asteroids.)

I certainly didn’t think NASA was going to announce that it had found Tatooine, Luke Skywalker’s home in Star Wars.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a world where two suns set over the horizon instead of just one. The planet, called Kepler-16b, is the most "Tatooine-like" planet yet found in our galaxy and is depicted here in this artist's concept with its two stars. Tatooine is the name of Luke Skywalker's home world in the science fiction movie Star Wars. In this case, the planet it not thought to be habitable. It is a cold world, with a gaseous surface, but like Tatooine, it circles two stars.

Ok, not the real Tatooine, but a planet called Kepler 16-b that orbits two stars. The discovery was due to the Kepler mission, which has been planet hunting since 2009. It has helped confirm 21 planets and identified over 1,200 planetary candidates.

I think Kepler might have beaten HARPS.

You’re putting Star Wars against something we can’t really envision. Sure, we can see the illustrations, but it’s not the same.

No matter who came out on top this week, the fascinating thing is that the discoveries made a lot of people talk about science. With this week’s additions, there are now 684 confirmed planets outside of our solar system. How cool is that?

We’re living in interesting times, my friends. I can’t wait to see what they find next.

Kepler finds most fascinating planet yet – an invisible one

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Center for Astrophysics, Discoveries, invisible planet, Kepler

The "invisible" world Kepler-19c, seen in the foreground of this artist's conception, was discovered solely through its gravitational influence on the companion world Kepler-19b - the dot crossing the star's face. Kepler-19b is slightly more than twice the diameter of Earth, and is probably a "mini-Neptune." Nothing is known about Kepler-19c, other than that it exists. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

You’ve got to be kidding me.

@NASAKepler
Kepler data reveals two New worlds … and ONE is INVISIBLE?

What? How could I not click the Twitter link.

Scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) yesterday announced that NASA’s Kepler spacecraft:

Has spotted a planet that alternately runs late and early in its orbit because a second, “invisible” world is tugging on it.

Um.

This is the first definite detection of a previously unknown planet using this method. No other technique could have found the unseen companion.

If you recall, it was also the CfA that discovered the planet darker than coal.

What do you make of this? I know one thing: I got a lot more research to do. Until then, read more about the planet here.

Dark planet found outside of our solar system

Tags

Center for Astrophysics, coal planet, dark planet, Kepler, TrES-2b

The Jupiter-sized exploplanet TrES-2b, shown here in an artist’s conception courtesy of David A. Aguilar of the Center for Astrophysics, is darker than the blackest coal.

It’s the size of Jupiter, darker than coal, and the 17th planet outside of our solar system that has been confirmed by NASA’s Kepler.

Late last week, it was confirmed that a gas giant known as TrES-2b was indeed a planet, according to a release from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

Here’s what astronomers know about TrES-2b:
- It’s 1,800° Fahrenheit
- It’s more than 4,500 trillion miles away (What?!?!)
- It’s tidally locked like our moon, so one side of the planet always faces its star.
- It’s darker than any planet or moon in our solar system

It’s not clear what is responsible for making this planet so extraordinarily dark,” stated David Spiegel, co-author on the paper reporting the research. “However, it’s not completely pitch black. It’s so hot that it emits a faint red glow, much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove.

Astronomers Spiegel of Princeton University and David Kipping of the CfA  made the discovery partly due to data provided by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft.

Do you know about Kepler? Its mission is to find Earth-like planets outside of our solar system. Since it’s launch into space in 2009, Kepler has found thousands – 1,235 to be exact – of planatery candidates, many the size of Jupiter.

Kepler is one of our favorite missions here at Space Oddities. You can keep up with Kepler’s discoveries by looking at the left-hand side of this page and clicking below “All eyes on Kepler.” You’ll be directed to NASA’s Kepler page, which contains tons of information about each confirmed exoplanet, the number of planetary candidates, and lots more.

Of course, we’ll keep you updated here, too.