Bill Nye Thanks Kepler Team for Planetary Bonanza

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
02/02/2011

CONTACT:
Mat Kaplan
Email: mat.kaplan@planetary.org

NASA announced today that the Kepler mission has discovered an astounding number of new potential planets -- over 1000 worlds, 54 of them in solar system regions where liquid water might exist.

"Thank you indeed, Kepler team!" said Bill Nye, Executive Director of the Planetary Society. "A thousand new planets, over 50 in the habitable zone, and this is just the beginning? Astonishing! Knowing that there are other worlds that could support life changes how we view our own."

An orbiting telescope, Kepler mines star systems for planets by measuring the brightness of stars and looking for telltale dips that indicate a planet is probably passing in front of its solar system's sun.

"The Kepler discoveries are game changers in our understanding of planetary formation and the nature of our stellar neighborhood," said Bruce Betts, Planetary Society Director of Projects. "Next will come the critical detailed ground-based and space-based follow-up observations that will turn candidates into confirmed planets, as well as the continued Kepler observations that will find planets with longer periods more like our solar system."

About the Planetary Society

The Planetary Society has inspired millions of people to explore other worlds and seek other life. Today, its international membership makes the non-governmental Planetary Society the largest space interest group in the world. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded the Planetary Society in 1980. Bill Nye, a long time member of the Planetary Society's Board, serves as CEO.

The Planetary Society
85 South Grand
Pasadena, CA 91105 USA
Web: www.planetary.org
Voice: (626) 793-5100
Fax: (626) 793-5528
Email: tps@planetary.org

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