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Astronomers discover 95 new exoplanets

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Astronomers discover 95 new exoplanets

A group of astronomers of the National Space Institute (DTU Space) at the Technical University of Denmark have discovered 95 new planets using the Kepler telescope.

“We started out analyzing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets. In turn 95 of these planets have proved to be new discoveries,” said Andrew Mayo an American PhD student of the Space Institute.

“This research has been underway since the first K2 data release in 2014.”

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Mayo is the main author of the work being presented in the Astronomical Journal.
The research has been conducted partly as a senior project during his undergraduate studies at Harvard College. It has also involved a team of international colleagues from institutions such as NASA, Caltech, UC Berkeley, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Tokyo.

These transits can be found by registering dips in light caused by the shadow of an exoplanet as it crosses in front of its host star.

These dips are indications of exoplanets which must then be examined much closer in order to validate the candidates that are actually exoplanets.

 

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