By combining data collected from NASA's Kepler space telescope, a planet-searching space telescope, University of British Columbia astronomy Ph.D. Michelle Cunimoto has found evidence of 17 new exoplanets.
Including a world roughly the size of Earth found in the 'habitable zone' – the region around a star where liquid water can exist.
'This planet is about a thousand light-years away, so we won't get there soon!' said Kunimoto in a statement.
“But this is a truly exciting find, as only 15 small confirmed planets have been discovered in these localities to date, as identified by Kepler.”
Kunimoto used the 'transit method' to find planets, one of the most widely used planet search methods.
“Every time a planet passes in front of a star, it blocks some of that star’s light and causes a temporary decrease in the star’s brightness,” she explained.
“Once you've found these gaps, known as transits, you can start piecing together information about the planet, such as its size and the time it takes to orbit.”
An earth-like planet is about 1.5 times the size of our own planet, and its orbit is slightly larger than that of Mercury. But it only receives about a third of the light that the Earth receives from the Sun.
Sources: Photo: Dimensions of 17 new planetary candidates, compared to Mars, Earth and Neptune. Green Planet – KIC-7340288 b, a rare rocky planet in the Habitable Zone. Credit: Michelle Kunimoto.
