Kepler’s Discovery
Launched only 10 months ago, NASA’s recently launched Kepler space telescope mission was yesterday reported to have found 5 new planets in its first six weeks of operation.
The planetary finds confirm that Kepler is working as expected, but are not the cause for celebration by ordinary alien-wishers. NASA estimates that each of the exoplanets (outside of our solar system) is “hotter than molten lava” which doesn’t leave any possibility for life (as we know it) to exist.
The Kepler mission is expected to last at least three and a half years. A good thing, since we’re told that there are “hundreds of candidates” in the data that’s been sent back so far, and since we’re also told that it would take the scientists several (Earth) years to confirm the existence of any “Earth-sized worlds” amoung them.
© Fowler Media
