Scientists find six exocomets using data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope
FirstpostThe discovery marks the first time that an object as small as a comet has been detected using transit photometry. Scientists have detected the dusty tails of six exocomets — comets outside our solar system — orbiting a faint star 800 light years from Earth. “It’s pretty impressive to be able to see something so small, so far away,” said Saul Rappaport, Professor Emeritus of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. The discovery marks the first time that an object as small as a comet has been detected using transit photometry, a technique by which astronomers observe a star’s light for telltale dips in intensity. The detection was made using data from NASA ’s Kepler Space Telescope, a stellar observatory that was launched into space in 2009.
History of this topic
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