BENTON TOWNSHIP-- Astronomers announced the recent discovery of several earth-sized planets orbiting a dwarf star 40 lights years away.
"It is a big deal for science in that it's the first time we have found a faint little star with a whole bunch of earth sized planets around it," said Tom Cupillari, professor emeritus at Keystone College. Like many in the field, Cupillari is excited hearing the news that a space telescope found at least seven earth-sized planets orbiting a dwarf star 235 trillion miles away from Earth.
"We've been looking at stars similar to our sun and finding planets. When this popped up, here's this faint little thing."
What makes this discovery so interesting is the star is only about the size of Jupiter. Much smaller than the size scientists would normally expect would be able to support seven earth-like planets.
NASA explained that at least three planets could have oceans, and one could even support life. And for students at Keystone College hearing the news, the possibilities are endless.
"That there's more out there we can discover and learn like us, hope that there's different things out there and things we can discover," said Mandy Jadick of Carbondale.
"It's very interesting to know about new planets, what cultures are on the planets and the environments," added Aubrey Quirindongo of Mount Pocono.
"Giving us motivation to continue bettering technology to find more planets like this and solar systems like that," said Kirsten Lydon of Clarks Summit.