XKCD - Exoplanets

[alex_greene]

Randall Monroe's XKCD talks about exoplanets today.

Link to the large version

"Planets are turning out to be so common that to show all the planets in our galaxy, this chart would have to be nested in itself - with each planet replaced by a copy of this chart - at least three levels deep."

So, the sky is full of planets. A very exciting time to be a Traveller player.

 

[F33D]

Wait 'till we can detect Earth sized ones. So far, we only have the tech to detect "super Earths"...

 

[BP]

No - we've had the tech for quite some time - just not well identified solar candidates to focus on

Till Kepler data came on the scene, that is.

Earth sized planets were confirmed last year and in Jan. three exoplanets smaller than Earth were confirmed (Palomar & W.M. Keck Observatories using Kepler public data, IIRC) orbiting a Red Dwarf. Wouldn't be surprised if more haven't been confirmed!

 

[F33D]

No - we've had the tech for quite some time - just not well identified solar candidates to focus on

Till Kepler data came on the scene, that is.

Earth sized planets were confirmed last year and in Jan. three exoplanets smaller than Earth were confirmed (Palomar & W.M. Keck Observatories using Kepler public data, IIRC) orbiting a Red Dwarf. Wouldn't be surprised if more haven't been confirmed!

You are correct! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204791104577110562687967308.html

 

[BP]

Yep - those are the near earth sized ones from last year (technically 'discovered' by Kepler mission much earlier)

Found my links (NASA, duh): http://kepler.nasa.gov/; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/smallest-exoplanets.html

Habital planets are the ones I'm most interested in http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler_data_release.html