Nasa has discovered 1,284 exoplanets, 550 of which could be rocky planets similar to Earth.
Using data from the Kepler Space Telescope, a team of astronomers analysed 7,056 detected objects, 4,302 of these were identified as potential planets.
From the analysis the team said they were 99 per cent sure that 1,284 of the objects were planets. Discovery of the exoplanets more than doubles the number found by Kepler. The findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Another 1,327 of the objects are "more likely than not" to be planets but did not meet the threshold for confirmation; 707 of the objects are believed to be something else in space.
Of the planets discovered the research team, led by Princeton University scholar Timothy Morton, nine of the new planets were "consistent with being in the habitable zones of their host stars".
This means the planets are orbiting close enough to their sun to be able to have a surface temperature that would allow liquid water to form in pools. The discovery of the potentially-life hosting planets increases the number found to 21.
The nine new planets in habitable zones are: Kepler-560 b, Kepler-705 b, Kepler-1229 b, Kepler-1410 b, Kepler-1455 b, Kepler-1544 b, Kepler-1593 b, Kepler-1606 v, and Kepler-1638 b.
"We now know there could be more planets than stars," said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at Nasa, adding that the data would help in discovering if there is life beyond Earth.
In previous findings from Kepler data astrophysicists claimed to have discovered a "second Earth" orbiting around a star 1,400 light years away. Dubbed Kepler-452b, the planet was described a slightly larger, older, Earth and said to have an orbit of 385 days.
The latest study of information beamed back from Kepler has greatly increased the number of exoplanets that have been discovered. A full list of exoplanets that have been discovered can be found here. "Of the nearly 5,000 total planet candidates found to date, more than 3,200 now have been verified, and 2,325 of these were discovered by Kepler," Nasa said in a statement.
To complete the latest haul, the research team conducted an "automated planet validation calculation," based on an algorithm created for the mission.
Called 'Vespa' the algorithm, which is freely available and based on Python, calculates the false positive probability based on Kepler's observation of the potential planet passing its star.
This method allowed for the researchers to analyse the entire dataset at once, with each object assigned a percentage rating of how likely it was to be a planet.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
