Project News

Discovery of Kepler-17b

Kepler • Project News • November 4th, 2011

This is a hot Jupiter-class planet orbiting an active star, with dark spots that are frequently occulted by the planet. From this we find the star rotates in about 12 days, only 8 times the the planet’s orbital period.

Discovery of Kepler-18b, c, and d

Kepler • Project News • October 4th, 2011

A team of Kepler researchers led by Bill Cochran of The University of Texas at Austin has announced the discovery three planets: a super-Earth and two Neptune-sized planets.

NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers a World Orbiting Two Stars

Kepler • Project News • September 15th, 2011

NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.

The turbulent lives of stars

Kepler • Project News • September 14th, 2011

The stars are boiling! The reason is the energy generated in the center of the star that wants to escape. If this does not happen quickly enough, the star starts to ‘boil’ in the outer layers causing vibrations that result in light variations, like in the Sun.

Invisible World Discovered

Kepler • Project News • September 8th, 2011

Kepler-19b transits its star every 9 days and 7 hours. It orbits the star at a distance of 8.4 million miles, where it is heated to a temperature of about 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

Alien World is Blacker than Coal

Kepler • Project News • August 11th, 2011

A Press Release from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA announcing that astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet: Jupiter-sized gas giant known as TrES-2b that reflects less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it, making it blacker than coal or any...

Gemini Image Captures Elegant Beauty of Planetary Nebula Discovered by Amateur Astronomer

Kepler • Project News • July 25th, 2011

The new nebula (named Kronberger 61, or Kn 61, after its discoverer) is within a relatively small patch of sky being intensely monitored by NASA’s Kepler planet finding mission.

Kepler-14b, Supergiant, is orbiting one of the stars in a binary star system

Kepler • Project News • July 20th, 2011

Kepler-14b is a planet 8 times more massive than Jupiter, orbiting one of the stars in a binary star system. The planet has a short orbital period of just 7 days, while the two stars orbit each other with a much longer period of about 2800 years.

Hubble Space Telescope's One Millionth Science Observation is of Kepler-2b

Kepler • Project News • July 4th, 2011

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope logged its one millionth science observation — a search for water in an exoplanet's atmosphere 1,000 light-years away. Hubble's millionth exposure is of the planet HAT-P-7b, a gas giant planet larger than Jupiter orbiting a star hotter than our sun. HAT-P-7b, also...

NASA's Pleiades Supercomputer Ranks Among World's Fastest

Kepler • Project News • June 20th, 2011

The Pleiades supercomputer plays a crucial role in Kepler data analysis. Pleiades now contains 23,296 Intel(R) Xeon(R) quad- and hex-core processors (111,104 cores in 182 racks) that can run at a theoretical peak of approximately 1.32 quadrillion floating point operations, or calculations, per...

Discovery of Kepler-17b

Kepler • November 4th, 2011

This is a hot Jupiter-class planet orbiting an active star, with dark spots that are frequently occulted by the planet. From this we find the star rotates in about 12 days, only...

Discovery of Kepler-18b, c, and d

Kepler • October 4th, 2011

A team of Kepler researchers led by Bill Cochran of The University of Texas at Austin has announced the discovery three planets: a super-Earth and two Neptune-sized planets.

NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers a World Orbiting Two Stars

Kepler • September 15th, 2011

NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.

The turbulent lives of stars

Kepler • September 14th, 2011

The stars are boiling! The reason is the energy generated in the center of the star that wants to escape. If this does not happen quickly enough, the star starts to ‘boil’ in...

Invisible World Discovered

Kepler • September 8th, 2011

Kepler-19b transits its star every 9 days and 7 hours. It orbits the star at a distance of 8.4 million miles, where it is heated to a temperature of about 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

Alien World is Blacker than Coal

Kepler • August 11th, 2011

A Press Release from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA announcing that astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet: Jupiter-sized gas...

Gemini Image Captures Elegant Beauty of Planetary Nebula Discovered by Amateur Astronomer

Kepler • July 25th, 2011

The new nebula (named Kronberger 61, or Kn 61, after its discoverer) is within a relatively small patch of sky being intensely monitored by NASA’s Kepler planet finding mission.

Kepler-14b, Supergiant, is orbiting one of the stars in a binary star system

Kepler • July 20th, 2011

Kepler-14b is a planet 8 times more massive than Jupiter, orbiting one of the stars in a binary star system. The planet has a short orbital period of just 7 days, while the two...

Hubble Space Telescope's One Millionth Science Observation is of Kepler-2b

Kepler • July 4th, 2011

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope logged its one millionth science observation — a search for water in an exoplanet's atmosphere 1,000 light-years away. Hubble's millionth exposure...

NASA's Pleiades Supercomputer Ranks Among World's Fastest

Kepler • June 20th, 2011

The Pleiades supercomputer plays a crucial role in Kepler data analysis. Pleiades now contains 23,296 Intel(R) Xeon(R) quad- and hex-core processors (111,104 cores in 182 racks)...