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Discovery alert! 95 new planets found with NASA telescope

Illustration of planets the Kepler telescope has found.

NASA/W. Stenzel

Discovery: 95 new planets!

Discovered by: Andrew Mayo et al. using NASA's Kepler telescope

Date: February 15, 2018

Key Facts: Ninety-five new exoplanets were discovered beyond our solar system! The planets range in size from mostly rocky super-Earths and fluffy mini-Neptunes to Jupiter-like giants. They include a new planet orbiting a very bright star– the brightest star ever discovered by Kepler to have a transiting planet. The new worlds were found using NASA's Kepler telescope, which launched almost a decade ago.

What's new: Planets, in all shapes and sizes! These discoveries aren't just cool– they're also somewhat of a miracle. During its first mission, parts of the Kepler telescope broke in a way that almost left it drifting. Instead, engineers figured out how to get it back on track. Kepler's second mission, called K2, has confirmed over 300 planets since then.

See details and check the official NASA planet count at the NASA Exoplanet Archive

Paper: "275 candidates and 149 validated planets orbiting bright stars in K2 campaigns 0-10"