On the downside, serious SF writers can no longer just make up planets of nearby stars to suit their stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally shared by Larry Panozzo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The conference just ended!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hundreds of new planet candidates (219 to be exact) and 10 new potentially habitable worlds<\/strong>, bringing that total up to 49.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n They also confirmed for us what we all learned in elementary school: there are two classes of planets: rocky ones 75% bigger in radius than Earth or smaller, and gaseous giants around Neptune’s size. Relatively few planets exist between those classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n They showed a plot during the conference of the new exoplanets, which I’ll put in the comments. One data point was ~1.2 times the radius of Earth with an orbital period about the same as Mercury’s. I don’t know the size of its star yet, but that could be unpleasantly hot. Another world looked to be ~1.5 times the radius of Earth with an orbital period of ~300 days. Lastly, one was .5 times the radius of Earth with the same 300-day orbital period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Exciting times.<\/p>\n\n\n https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/press-release\/nasa-releases-kepler-survey-catalog-with-hundreds-of-new-planet-candidates<\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the downside, serious SF writers can no longer just make up planets of nearby stars to suit their stories.
\n Continue reading