KSC releases report of hopeful exoplanet.
Yesterday at 4:26pm scientists working at the KSC’s Tracking Station discovered a star system with a total of nine eight planets. Of the nine eight only one appears to be habitable. This planet is located in what is called the ‘Koldilocks Zone’, an area around a star which has the highest potential to harbour life. The planet appears to be approximately eleven times the size of Kerbin. We spoke to Wernher Von Kerman and he said “This is among the most promising planets that we have found so far. I am very excited about this one as it is by far the most likely to actually harbour some sort of intelligent life.”
In the same system scientists have also taken note of a gas giant with a bright red circle on the surface. This circle has been nicknamed ‘The Red Spot’ and is yet to be understood as to what causes this strange phenomenon.
Astronomers have not given these newly discovered planets names yet but are willing to listen to suggestions from the public. Players of the popular video game ‘Human Space Program’ have noted the striking resemblance between the planets in this system and the planets featured inside the game. As such names such as ‘Earth’, ‘Mars’ and ‘Jupiter’ have been suggested among many others. We asked some of the employees at Squid, the company that created the video game, what they thought about this. "It would be really cool to have these planets named after our game but it hasn't really got the global influence to justify it." said one of their Community Managers, Dabie. "Would each language get a localised translation?" asked TriggerTau, a developer at Squid.
The clearest obtainable image of the new exoplanet.
- Greg Kerman, Science Correspondent