Friday, September 16, 2011

50 New Exoplanets Discovered And At Least One Could Sustain Life

Scientists have identified more than 50 new exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), including 16 super-Earths (planets whose mass is between one and 10 times that of our own planet) and at least one planet that could potentially hold life.

It's called HD 85512 b, and is about 3.6 times the mass of the Earth. This planet is about 35 light years from Earth and could have liquid water under certain circumstances.

So far, scientists have confirmed the existence of 564 planets outside of our solar system not counting this latest batch of more than 50. Beyond that however, NASA's Kepler mission has found more than 1,200 exoplanets. Click here for the CNN articel >>>>> http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/13/16-super-earths-found-outside-solar-system/?hpt=hp_c1