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706 promising candidates, not confirmed. As many people are pointing out there they are aiming for 3 transits to confirm something is a planet, it doesn't seem
by robryan 16y ago
706 promising candidates, not confirmed. As many people are pointing out there they are aiming for 3 transits to confirm something is a planet, it doesn't seem to be clear though whether those 706 are including things that have transited more than once in the 43 days which would indicate very short orbits.
Should note to that most exoplanets don't transit their star when viewed from earth. A quick Google search suggests that only 54 of the first 333 exoplanets discovered did.
- BahUnfair 16y agoThere are other methods to finding planets. Most of the early Hot Jupiters were found by measuring the "wobble" of a star - a bulge at the surface - caused by the gravity of the massive gas giant careening around it. Also, the title is wrong, just because the telescope is looking for earth like planets doesn't mean it can't find gas giants as well.
- robryan 16y agoI'm aware, just pointing out that the transit method that kepler uses can only pick a percentage of planets even if they are of significant enough size to be found because from our viewing angle they don't transit.