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NASA Kepler Telescope Discovers 715 New Planets

posted by mattie_p on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-bet-that's-all-of-them-now dept.

kef writes:

"NASA's Kepler mission has doubled the number of known planets outside of our solar system. In what can only be described as a "bonanza", 715 new planets have been reported thanks to the Kepler space telescope's planet-hunting mission. Using a new method for verifying potential planets led to the volume of new discoveries from Kepler, which aims to help humans search for other worlds that may be like Earth."

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by martyb on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:49AM

    by martyb (76) on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:49AM (#7972) Journal

    From TFA [nasa.gov]:

    NASA's Kepler mission announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system.

    ...

    This latest discovery brings the confirmed count of planets outside our solar system to nearly 1,700. As we continue to reach toward the stars, each discovery brings us one step closer to a more accurate understanding of our place in the galaxy.

    Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission to find potentially habitable Earth-size planets. Discoveries include more than 3,600 planet candidates, of which 961 have been verified as bona-fide worlds.(emphasis added)

    I'm confused. Do we now have about 1700 or is it 961 exoplanets? What's the difference between "verified", "confirmed", and "bona-fide"?

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by chebucto on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:52AM

    by chebucto (36) on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:52AM (#7975) Journal

    Perhaps 'discovery' means the Kepler team signed off on the planets, while 'verified' means that other teams have confirmed their findings.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Sir Garlon on Thursday February 27 2014, @11:04AM

    by Sir Garlon (1264) on Thursday February 27 2014, @11:04AM (#7981)

    I infer that 961 was the count before these last 715 were verified. (961+715 = 1676 ~ "nearly 1700") But yeah, author of TFA was playing fast and loose with his/her wording and that obfuscates what should otherwise be a pretty straightforward distinction.

    --
    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight who is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday February 27 2014, @11:50AM

    by c0lo (156) on Thursday February 27 2014, @11:50AM (#8015)

    Latin "bona fide" literally means "good faith". So, in my understanding, the rest may have been verified as present but found as "male fide" (bad faith... I don't know, a synchretic [wikipedia.org] faith maybe?)

  • (Score: 2) by combatserver on Thursday February 27 2014, @07:57PM

    by combatserver (38) on Thursday February 27 2014, @07:57PM (#8164)

    "What's the difference between "verified", "confirmed", and "bona-fide"?"

    I think it has something to with security certificates.

    --
    I hope I can change this later...