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WASHINGTON — The list of known exoplanets in the galaxy just got bigger, thanks to the first observations of NASA's Kepler space telescope, which found five new lightweight worlds orbiting distant stars.



"I would like to announce today the discovery of five exoplanets by Kepler," said Kepler science director William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., here today at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.



The planet-hunting Kepler, which hopes to discover alien Earths, also found an odd object orbiting a star and is measuring the quakes that ripple across stellar surface.



The five newfound planets are all much larger than the Earth-sized bodies Kepler was designed to find, with one coming in at around the size of Neptune, and the other four measuring larger than Jupiter.

Story Link: Kepler Planet-Hunting Mission Finds 5 New Lightweight Worlds - Yahoo! News

and the other four measuring larger than Jupiter.


Crikey! That's big. Interesting. I thought that the current theory was that if a planet was much bigger than Jupiter its internal gravity would be so great that it would kick start a fusion reaction and turn the planet into a small sun. They must be very lightweight...no iron? No heavy metals? Weird....

Clodhopper;1279207 wrote: Crikey! That's big. Interesting. I thought that the current theory was that if a planet was much bigger than Jupiter its internal gravity would be so great that it would kick start a fusion reaction and turn the planet into a small sun. They must be very lightweight...no iron? No heavy metals? Weird....


Good point. Guess we don't know everything yet, eh?

As for me.... I'm packing my bags!!!!!!:D(Come on Quantum Teleportation!!)