NASA finds new solar system with 6 planets

Kepler Space Telescope has made a stunning discovery. Through the NASA press conference held Wednesday (02/02/2011) afternoon, announced the main thing is that Kepler had discovered more than 1200 planets with 54 of them potentially support life. 

However, outside the main issues concerning the discovery of a habitable planet, the Kepler's saving other findings that are not less astonishing. The new space telescope in operation in 2009 it discovered a new solar system consists of 6 units of the planet. All the planets orbiting a parent star, called Kepler 11. 

The new solar system is 2000 light years from Earth. The solar system is unique because it is the first solar system that has a number of transiting planets more than 3. In a press conference, NASA said, "This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a parent star ever found outside our solar system." 

Simply transiting planets can be regarded as a planet or star is going through a face of another planet so that it looks like a drop in the star. Process similar to processes that occur in transit eclipse. The difference, in the process of transit, smaller objects are in front of a larger object so that small objects that would look like dots on a large object. While the eclipse, the larger object passing in front of smaller objects so that cover. Large relatively small objects from the viewpoint of the observer. In our solar system, not rare transit of Mercury on the face of the sun or other planets. 

Temperatures across the planet is hotter than Venus, about 400 to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. The astronomers said, the entire planet that orbits Kepler 11 has a size larger than the Earth. Range size is approximately 2 to 4.5 times the mass of the earth. The largest planet is estimated to have a size equivalent to Uranus or Neptune. Altogether found a way to see the dimming light of the parent star when the planet crossed the region between the star and the telescope. 

Another uniqueness of this new solar system is its architecture. Members of Kepler's solar system comprises 11 planets composed of compact, packed the area near the parent star. Accumulate as much as 5 planets close together while the other one seemed to "bounce" due to slightly separate. Is the nearest planet Kepler 11-b is the distance to the parent star 10 times closer than the Earth-Sun distance. While the planet is farthest Kepler 11-g of the distance to the parent star 1 / 2 Earth-Sun distance. 

So far, not yet known the solar system with such a unique architecture. As many as five planets that seems to accumulate is 11-b Kepler, Kepler 11-c, 11-d Kepler, Kepler and Kepler 11-d 11-e. Meanwhile, the planet is a little bounce is Kepler 11-g. Entirely a planet that consists of a mixture of rock, gas and possibly water. 

Kepler Planet 11-d, Kepler and Kepler 11-e 11-f have a significant amount of light gases, indicating that the three newly formed within the last few million years. The entire planet has a period between 10-47 days of the revolution. 

With the discovery of this new solar system, Kepler's has established itself as the leading space telescope today. Prediction Geoff Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California at Berkeley, in 2020 Kepler will find at least 10,000 planets. While in 2030, their number could increase 20 000 findings again. Until NASA conference yesterday, Kepler planets have been discovered in 1235.

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