The chances of finding alien life were
given a boost last night after Nasa revealed it had found evidence of
more than 1,200 planets in orbit around far distant stars.
If the findings are confirmed, it will
more than triple the number of known planets outside our own solar
system in one fell swoop – and, amazingly, 54 of them could be able to
support life.
System: This artists’s impression from Nasa shows Kepler-11, a sun-like star around which six planets orbit
The new solar system was spotted using Nasa’s Kepler space telescope which looks for tiny flickers in the brightness of a star each time a planet passes across its surface.
The star – called Kepler-11 – is similar to our own Sun. However, all
its planets are in orbit too close to the star to hold life as we know
it.
The new solar system was spotted using Nasa’s Kepler space telescope which looks for tiny flickers in the brightness of a star each time a planet passes across its surface.
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