CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Astronomers have discovered two planets using NASA’s Kepler telescope: a super Earth inferno and its Neptune-like companion. The knowledge and tools NASA has developed to study life on Earth will be a great asset to the study of planets beyond our solar system.

Detailed explanation-2: -What do planets outside our solar system, or exoplanets, look like? A variety of possibilities are shown in this illustration. Scientists discovered the first exoplanets in the 1990s. As of 2022, the tally stands at just over 5,000 confirmed exoplanets.

Detailed explanation-3: -On 4 November 2013, astronomers reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy.

Detailed explanation-4: -Working with data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, Michigan State University has helped discover an Earth-sized exoplanet - a planet outside of our solar system.

Detailed explanation-5: -To date, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered and are considered “confirmed” out of the billions in our galaxy alone.