Kepler Investigator Says 'Galaxy Is Rich In Earth-Like Planets'

In today's Slashdot:

Kepler Investigator Says 'Galaxy Is Rich In Earth-Like Planets'

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/07/27/0154212/Kepler-Investigator-Says-Galaxy-Is-Rich-In-Earth-Like-Planets
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" In a recent presentation, Kepler co-investigator Dimitar Sasselov
" unexpectedly announced news that the Kepler Space Telescope has
" discovered scores of candidate Earth-like exoplanets. Not waiting
" for the official NASA press release to announce the discovery,
" Sasselov went into some detail at the TEDGlobal talk in Oxford,
" UK earlier this month. This surprise announcement comes hot on
" the heels of controversy that erupted last month when the Kepler
" team said they were withholding data on 400 exoplanet candidates
" until February 2011. In light of this, Sasselov's unofficial
" announcement has already caused a stir. Keith Cowing, of
" NASAWatch.com, has commented on this surprise turn of events,
" saying it is really annoying 'that the Kepler folks were
" complaining about releasing information since they wanted more
" time to analyze it before making any announcements. And then
" the project's Co-I goes off and spills the beans before an
" exclusive audience -- offshore. We only find out about it when
" the video gets quietly posted weeks later.' Although Sasselov
" could have handled the announcement better (and waited until
" NASA made the official announcement), this has the potential
" to be one of the biggest astronomical discoveries of our time
" so long as these Earth-like 'candidates' are confirmed by
" further study.
"
http://news.discovery.com/space/kepler-scientist-galaxy-is-rich-in-earth-like-planets.html
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http://www.ted.com/talks/dimitar_sasselov_how_we_found_hundreds_of_earth_li ke_planets.html
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http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1415