Kepler Sees 26 Planets Around 11 Different Stars

NASA Ames/UC Santa Cruz

This artist's concept shows an overhead view of the orbital position of the planets in systems with multiple transiting planets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission, and announced on Jan. 26, 2012. All the colored planets have been verified. The planet candidates shown in grey have not yet been verified.

Artist's Conception of Kepler-22b

NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

This artist's conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.

Rocky Planet Kepler-10b

NASA

Artist's concept of Kepler-10b, which was detected by NASA's Kepler mission. Kepler scientists say it's the first "unquestionably rocky" alien planet ever found.

Like Moths to a Flame, Alien Planets Can Flock to Nearest Star

NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

This artist's concept illustrates the two Saturn-sized planets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission around a star called Kepler-9. A 3rd planet, just 1.5 times the size of Earth, may also be orbiting the star. This is the first star system found to have multiple transiting planets.

Kepler Planets Illustration

Nature

An artist's illustration of the extrasolar planets discovered around the star Kepler 11 by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope.

Planet Orbiting Two Suns

NASA/JPL-Caltech

This artist's concept illustrates Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars -- a real-life Tatooine, from 'Star Wars.' The planet, which can be seen in the foreground, was discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.

Three Planets Found Around Kepler-18 Star

Tim Jones/McDonald Obs./UT-Austin

This graphic shows the orbits of the three known planets orbiting Kepler-18 as compared to Mercury's orbit around the Sun. The bottom graphic shows the relative sizes of the Kepler-18 and its known planets to the Sun and Earth.

Twin Sun Planet Kepler 35b: Mark Garlick

Mark A. Garlick

An artist's illustration of Kepler-35 b, a Saturn-size planet around a pair of sun-size stars, as envisioned by artist Mark A. Garlick. The discovery of Kepler-35b and another twin sun planet, Kepler-34 b, was announced Jan. 11, 2012 and represent a new class of circumbinary planets.

Alien Solar System of Kepler-20

NASA

This still from a NASA animation shows the orbits of the five planets residing in the Kepler-20 star system 950 light-years from Earth. The alien solar system is home to two Earth-size planets, the first such exoplanets ever found.

Kepler Planet Sizes

NASA/Kepler mission/Wendy Stenzel

Comparative sizes of Kepler planets, through Kepler-22b.

"Invisible" Alien Planet Kepler 19c

David A. Aguilar (CfA)

The "invisible" world Kepler-19c, seen in the foreground of this artist's conception, was discovered solely through its gravitational influence on the companion world Kepler-19b (the dot crossing the star's face). Kepler-19b is slightly more than twice the diameter of Earth, and is probably a "mini-Neptune." Nothing is known about Kepler-19c, other than that it exists.