spacetoday.net: Kepler detects more than 1,000 exoplanets

Posted: Thu, Feb 3, 2011, 6:54 AM ET (1154 GMT)
Kepler-11 solar system illustration (NASA)

Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft announced Wednesday that they have now found in excess 1,000 potential extrasolar planets orbiting other stars, including dozens of planets about the size of the Earth. The discoveries come from observations of more than 156,000 stars in one portion of the sky over several months in 2009. Scientists said they have found 1,235 "planet candidates" orbiting those stars, including 68 Earth-sized worlds. In addition, 54 of the exoplanet candidates found to date orbit their stars' habitable zones; five of the 54 are Earth-sized while the rest are larger. Among the findings in the discovery is one solar system, orbiting a star designated Kepler-11, featuring six planets that orbit the star closer than Venus orbits the Sun.