Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
What a summer of discovery it has been for NASA's deep-space Kepler Mission and its search for planets like our own precious Earth!
As of a few days ago, the Kepler probe reportedly had found and scientists had identified more than 700 bodies that could be new planets. That's after only a few weeks of active observation by the probe that was launched last year and just recently became operational.
Many of the so-called exoplanets could be earth-like in size and composition. One prominent Kepler Mission scientist told reporters "the figures suggest our galaxy, the Milky Way, will contain 100 million habitable planets . . . the statistical result is loud and clear, and it is that planets like our own Earth are out there."
Indeed, what an intriguing discovery!
Just as our forbearers sought to learn what lay beyond the next ridge, river and ocean, modern earth-based explorers are probing the depths of space in wondrous ways to expand our limited horizons. Each contemporary discovery brings a reminder of man's relative puniness among vastness of the cosmos, while leaving us wondering what really is out there.
KSL will be anxiously looking for more exciting discoveries as the Kepler mission proceeds.
