NASA's Kepler telescope uncovers a treasure trove of planets

Transcription

1 NASA's Kepler telescope uncovers a treasure trove of planets By Los Angeles Times, adapted by Newsela on Word Count 711 The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover Earthsized planets in or near the habitable zones of their stars and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such Photo: NASA LOS ANGELES By working in a brand-new way, scientists using NASA s Kepler Space Telescope have found 715 new planets outside our solar system. It doubles the overall number of confirmed planets to about 1,700. Nearly 95 percent of the new planets are smaller than Neptune. The 715 new planets huddle around 305 stars. Four of them are in their star s habitable zone, the region where temperatures make liquid water a necessary ingredient for life as we know it able to exist. When planets are found too close to their star it's too hot for life to exist. Too far away and conditions are too cold for life. The planet-hunting telescope s pointing ability was crippled last year. Yet before this happened the spacecraft turned up a trove of strange and wonderful worlds, researchers said bringing them ever closer to finding Earth 2.0. The researchers have delivered "more than 20 times as many planets as have ever been found and announced at once, said Jack Lissauer. He's a planetary scientist at NASA, the U.S. space agency.

2 All In Multiplanet Systems The research covers the first two years of information after Kepler s 2009 launch. It has turned up a bounty of smaller planets and all in multiplanet systems. The findings increased the number of confirmed Earth-sized planets by 400 percent. Confirmed super- Earths (larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune) increased by 500 percent and Neptune-sized planets rose by 200 percent. The number of Jupiter-sized worlds, on the other hand, increased by a mere 2 percent. Kepler s first finds were massive gas giants like Jupiter. This new haul featured planets that are in the right size range to potentially host life as we know it. It will certainly have effects "for any mission that finds planets, Kepler project scientist Steve Howell said of the findings. Kepler gets better at finding smaller planets with longer periods over time. This allows it more time to search for the tiny shadows planets cast as they pass in front of their home stars. This mission collected about four years of information before the spacecraft stopped functioning properly. (Plans to repurpose the spacecraft, called K2, are currently in the works.) Even though the Kepler mission has found 3,601 possible planets, only 246 had been previously confirmed. It takes a lot of extra, painstaking work to ensure that the dips in light that Kepler picks up really are from a planet. Instead Kepler might be picking up drops in light caused by two stars blocking each other. "Super Excited About This" Researchers used a new method to find and confirm these 715 It relies on the idea that planets seem to cluster in systems with other The method found like in our own solar system that multiple planets orbiting around a single star is common. It doesn't happen by chance, Lissauer said. He calling the new method a powerful technique" for verifying new planets on a large scale. Two teams of researchers were able to devise a method that focused on these multiplanet systems. Since it is difficult for stars to orbit each other, they could often rule out that two stars were blocking each other's light. This resulted in the largest single haul of exoplanets (planets found outside our solar system) since the first one was discovered in the 1990s. It nearly quadruples the number of confirmed planets found with Kepler (from 246 to 961). Many exoplanets have also been discovered by looking for the gravitational influence of a planet on its star. I m super excited about this, said Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is not involved in the Kepler project. The multiplanet systems will help scientists understand our own solar system s development,

3 she said. For example, many of these systems seem to have multiple planets clustered in an orbit smaller than Venus, or even Mercury, around our sun. It begs the question: Why are our own solar system s inner planets relatively spaced out? The findings will also shed light on mini-neptunes, mysterious planets with rocky cores and gas-filled atmospheres. No similar planets are found in our own solar system. Scientists hope the findings will sharpen their search for Earth-sized, potentially Earth-like Nature wants to make small planets, Seager said.

4 Quiz 1 Select the paragraph in the section All In Multiplanet Systems that describes how the Kepler Space Telescope works, as well as the new problem facing the scientists controlling Kepler. 2 In the section Super Excited About This, the author suggests scientists are excited about the Kepler Space Telescope s findings because: they will tell scientists about our own solar system they will tell scientists how to find planets that are even further away they will tell scientists about the rocky core and atmosphere of Earth they will tell scientists why nature wants to make small planets 3 Each option includes two sentences from the article. In which option do BOTH sentences help explain the meaning of Earth-like planets? No similar planets are found in our own solar system. Scientists hope the findings will sharpen their search for Earth-sized, potentially Earth-like The 715 new planets huddle around 305 stars. Four of them are in their star s habitable zone, the region where temperatures make liquid water a necessary ingredient for life as we know it able to exist. When planets are found too close to their star it's too hot for life to exist. Too far away and conditions are too cold for life. The planet-hunting telescope s pointing ability was crippled last year. Yet before this happened the spacecraft turned up a trove of strange and wonderful worlds, researchers said bringing them ever closer to finding Earth Why are the Kepler Space Telescope s discoveries considered especially important when so many other planets have been discovered? It doubles the overall number of planets ever found to about 1,700. It has turned up a bounty of smaller planets and all in multiplanet systems. It relies on the idea that planets seem to cluster in systems with other Kepler s first finds were massive gas giants like Jupiter.

5 Answer Key 1 Select the paragraph in the section All In Multiplanet Systems that describes how the Kepler Space Telescope works, as well as the new problem facing the scientists controlling Kepler. Paragraph 7: Kepler gets better at finding smaller planets with longer periods over time. This allows it more time to search for the tiny shadows planets cast as they pass in front of their home stars. This mission collected about four years of information before the spacecraft stopped functioning properly. (Plans to repurpose the spacecraft, called K2, are currently in the works.) 2 In the section Super Excited About This, the author suggests scientists are excited about the Kepler Space Telescope s findings because: they will tell scientists about our own solar system they will tell scientists how to find planets that are even further away they will tell scientists about the rocky core and atmosphere of Earth they will tell scientists why nature wants to make small planets 3 Each option includes two sentences from the article. In which option do BOTH sentences help explain the meaning of Earth-like planets? No similar planets are found in our own solar system. Scientists hope the findings will sharpen their search for Earth-sized, potentially Earth-like The 715 new planets huddle around 305 stars. Four of them are in their star s habitable zone, the region where temperatures make liquid water a necessary ingredient for life as we know it able to exist. When planets are found too close to their star it's too hot for life to exist. Too far away and conditions are too cold for life. The planet-hunting telescope s pointing ability was crippled last year. Yet before this happened the spacecraft turned up a trove of strange and wonderful worlds, researchers said bringing them ever closer to finding Earth 2.0.

6 4 Why are the Kepler Space Telescope s discoveries considered especially important when so many other planets have been discovered? It doubles the overall number of planets ever found to about 1,700. It has turned up a bounty of smaller planets and all in multiplanet systems. It relies on the idea that planets seem to cluster in systems with other Kepler s first finds were massive gas giants like Jupiter.