On January 4th, 2010, the Kepler Science Team announced the first five worlds discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope.
These planets are larger, Jupiter-sized ones, instead of the smaller Earth-sized planets it was designed to detect, but these discoveries pave the way by assuring that the systems all work and that the science goals will be met.
This announcement was made at the Meeting of the American Astronomical Society being held this week in Washington DC. Here is a link to the press release:
This was the fastest I've ever made a video. I was heading off to bed at about 11:30 pm, cozy in bed with my laptop when I first read the release - I was uploading this video by 3:00 am.
I felt this news was important because many Space Fans have been asking questions about what Kepler is and how it worked.
Keep Looking Up!