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Kepler ‘K2′ Finds First Exoplanet, A ‘Super-Earth’, While Surfing Sun’s Pressure Wave For Control

Thursday, December 18, 2014 9:57

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(Before It's News)

Artist’s conception of the Kepler Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

It’s alive! NASA’s Kepler space telescope had to stop planet-hunting during Earth’s northern-hemisphere summer 2013 when a second of its four pointing devices (reaction wheels) failed. But using a new technique that takes advantage of the solar wind, Kepler has found its first exoplanet since the K2 mission was publicly proposed in November 2013.

And despite a loss of pointing precision, Kepler’s find was a smaller planet — a super-Earth! It’s likely a water world or a rocky core shrouded in a thick, Neptune-like atmosphere. Called HIP 116454b, it’s 2.5 times the size of Earth and a whopping 12 times the mass. It circles its dwarf star quickly, every 9.1 days, and is about 180 light-years from Earth.
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Read the rest of Kepler ‘K2′ Finds First Exoplanet, A ‘Super-Earth’, While Surfing Sun’s Pressure Wave For Control (412 words)