Kepler Telescope: 715 New Planets Announced In One Day!

[im]

Astonishing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-2636...

http://news.sky.com/story/1218013/nasa-telescope-f...

And it's now turning out that planets ranging from the size of the Earth to the size of Neptune are common around stars...."astronomers were able to estimate that 22% of all Sun-like stars in the Milky Way have Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-2482...

That Fermi Paradox is working flat out now!

[Eric Mc]

It was bound to happen. Planets are totally normal and will be found virtually everywhere.

[bashful]

I wonder if any of those planets have anyone on them imaging our system and wondering if we're here...

[im]

Wow...No. Of Planets discovered each year, graphed:




All Super-Earths are likely to be sterile:

http://io9.com/astronomers-say-super-earths-may-be...