Prior to today’s announcement, the Keppler Mission had discovered twelve Earth-sized planets that were in a ‘habitable zone’ orbit around their host stars.
Last month, NASA scientists pointed the Keppler Telescope in the opposite direction of prior observations. Scientists ‘flipped’ the telescope for an experiment with two-dozen ground-based observatories to use gravitational microlensing techniques to survey stars toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy in search of exoplanets.
A notice to media about the announcement gave little details, other than the briefing participants:
Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Timothy Morton, associate research scholar at Princeton University in New Jersey
Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California
Charlie Sobeck, Kepler/K2 mission manager at Ames
Photo credit: NASA
