The Kepler telescope will be looking at 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way for more than three years as it trails Earth's orbit around the Sun.
To date, more than 330 exoplanets--planets outside of our native solar system--have been discovered. Most of these are large, gas giants along the likes of Jupiter, and outside of what we would consider to be the habitable zone of their solar systems. And we've even found planemos--planets that aren't tied to a planet and are speeding through space. Since 1995, our technology and ability to find smaller planets seems to be getting better and more precise. Last month, the Europe's space telescope, COROT, was able to find a planet that was only half the size of planet Earth. So, the technology is there--now we just need to find planets that are about the size of Earth--meaning they'd likely be a rocky, terrestrial type planet that could possibly have an atmosphere and hold water. And that's what the Kepler craft will do.
In the meantime, here are three interesting planets that have been discovered:
* Bellerphon. Okay, so it's probably more accurately called 51 Pegasi b, which identifies the star it orbits, and its location in that star system. It was the first exoplanet that was identified, back in 1995, and named for a character from mythology, who supposedly tamed the Pegasus.
* Epsilon Eridani b. Science fiction fans will likely recognize the name of our galactic neighbor and the third closest star to Earth, only about 11 light years from us. It's the star system that the planet Vulcan in Star Trek supposedly orbits. It's also the system that the space station Babylon 5 can be found in. This planet, however, is another one of those Jupiter-like gas giants, and too close to the star to support life. However, it is possible that there is a planet in the habitable zone there.
* Gliese 581 c. This is another fairly close planetary neighbor, about 20 light years away. What is remarkable about Gliese 581 c is that it is located in the habitable zone as we are aware of it. The temperature of this planet is estimated to be between 32 and 102 degrees Fahrenheit. It is also about Earth size (to be precise, one and a half times the size of the Earth). However, things that work against it are the fact that it has gravity twice as strong as Earth's, it is bombarded with high amounts of radiation, and it has an orbit of 13 Earth days. Though it is possible that life did develop suited to those environments.
Reference: fromatlantistosphinx.blogspot.com
