astronomy

List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope

List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope rather than just read about it. In short: The list of exoplanets detected by the Kepler space telescope contains bodies with a wide variety of properties, with significant ranges in orbital distances, masses, radii, composition, habitability, and host star type. As of June 16 2023, the Kepler space telescope and its follow-up observations have detected 2,778 planets, including hot Jupiters, super-Earths, circumbinary planets, and planets located in the circ…

Key takeaways

List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The list of exoplanets detected by the Kepler space telescope contains bodies with a wide variety of properties, with significant ranges in orbital distances, masses, radii, composition, habitability, and host star type. As of June 16 2023, the Kepler space telescope and its follow-up observations have detected 2,778 planets, including hot Jupiters, super-Earths, circumbinary planets, and planets located in the circumstellar habitable zones of their host stars. Kepler has detected over 3,601 unconfirmed planet candidates and 2,165 eclipsing binary stars. In addition to detecting planets itself, Kepler has also uncovered the properties of three previously known extrasolar planets. Public Kepler data has also been used by groups independent of NASA, such as the Planet Hunters citizen-science project, to detect several planets orbiting stars collectively known as Kepler Objects of Interest. Kepler, launched on March 7, 2009, was designed to observe a fixed portion of the sky in visible light and measure the light curves of the various stars in its field of view, looking for planets crossing in front of their host stars via the transit method. Since the launch of the spacecraft, though, both the Kepler team at NASA and independent researchers have found new ways of detecting planets, including the use of the transit timing variation method and relativistic beaming. In addition, gravitational microlensing has been proposed as a method of using Kepler to detect compact objects, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. Kepler has also measured the reflected light from some planets already known, discovering planets undetectable with the transit method as well as improving knowledge of the characteristics of planets already discovered. On February 26, 2014, NASA announced the discovery of 715 newly verified exoplanets around 305 stars by the Kepler Space Telescope. The exoplanets were found using a statistical technique called "verification by multiplicity". 95% of the discovered exoplanets were smaller than Neptune and four, including Kepler-296f, were less than 2 1/2 the size of Earth and were in habitable zones where surface temperatures are suitable for liquid water.

On May 10, 2016, NASA announced that the Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets. Based on some of the planet's sizes, about 550 could potentially be rocky planets. Nine of these orbit in their stars' habitable zone.

Lists All exoplanets discovered lie in one of the three northern constellations of Cygnus, Lyra and Draco, which belong to Kepler's photometer's field of view.

List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 1–500 List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 501–1000 List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 1001–1500 List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 1501–2000 List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 2001–2500

See also Lists of exoplanets Exoplanet List of exoplanets discovered by the TESS mission

References Footnotes

Citations

External links Kepler - Discoveries - Summary Table

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope

In research: List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope, Transiting exoplanets, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
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Frequently asked questions

What is List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope in simple terms?

Why does List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope.