NASA Probe Spots Another Solar System
By: Newsroom Solutions
Updated: February 2, 2011
A NASA space probe searching for planets that could hold alien life has made an interesting discovery.
A study in the journal "Nature" reports the Kepler probe has found the first known solar system outside our own with more than three planets orbiting a star.
The system is about two-thousand light years from Earth and revolves around a star named Kepler-11.
Five confirmed planets about the size of Neptune orbit the star and are all closer to it than Mercury is to our sun.
That's bad news for humans, who would never be able to survive on a planet so hot.
However, there is a sixth suspected planet a little farther away that could be slightly cooler.
NASA will reveal all the details of the finding at a Washington, DC news conference later today.
A study in the journal "Nature" reports the Kepler probe has found the first known solar system outside our own with more than three planets orbiting a star.
The system is about two-thousand light years from Earth and revolves around a star named Kepler-11.
Five confirmed planets about the size of Neptune orbit the star and are all closer to it than Mercury is to our sun.
That's bad news for humans, who would never be able to survive on a planet so hot.
However, there is a sixth suspected planet a little farther away that could be slightly cooler.
NASA will reveal all the details of the finding at a Washington, DC news conference later today.
