Can they just stop finding new exoplanets for a minute!

[OneOfOne]

Arghhhh!

Last night I was updating a couple of presentations I have done talking about the discovery of exoplanets, the number found, how many Jupiter size etc. I checked my source of all things exoplanetary:

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/atlas/atlas_index.cfm

Updated my slides, graphs etc. Then imported these slides over similar ones in a couple of other talks...simple, easy peasy! I needed to check one number for a particular talk so I went back to the site....and my numbers were wrong! They had added another 7 planets while I was updating my slides.

This morning I had another look....ARGHHHHH! They have done it again, my slides said "479 in total", the number is now 490!

Can they just stop for a minute while everyone catches up!

At this rate, they will crack 500 by lunch time tomorrow!

[renormalised]

Kepler has found over 700 possible candidates that have very good chances of being planets:):)

So, there's a lot more to come:)

[michaellxv]

prefix all your numbers with 'at least' and postfix them with 'and counting' :)
or quote your numbers 'as at date/time' to the second.

[OneOfOne]

I had noticed they added a couple more Keplers!

I just checked and it is still 490...whew! It had increased from 466, then to 479 and finally 490 while I was making changes...I guess it is still the weekend over there, so they may add more tomorrow. The ones that were added were not at the top of the chronological list either, so I had to recount the number found this year, now on 75.

[supernova1965]

And they are just the big ones lets say we assume that there are nine planets in each system yes I am old school and still think of PLUTO as a planet and do the math that is 3920 possible planets circling those stars:eyepop::jawdrop:

[kingkong01]

for as long as the universe keeps expanding at the rate it is now and new stars being made and dieing. exoplanets will always be formed and found it is a never ending cycle. a good idea would be to see how many earth like/habitable planets that are out there.
.james.

[ballaratdragons]

and all those are in one spot! http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/atlas/images/galaxy-graphic.jpg

Imagine how many more elsewhere in our own Galaxy . . . then in the other few billion Galaxies :scared2:

[Outbackmanyep]

So what they are finding are exo-planet candidates? Not necessarily exoplanets?

[TrevorW]

In all probability there are millions out there, if our solar system is a typical example of how solar systems form