A team of astronomers has located over 100 celestial bodies that could very well be previously unknown exoplanets. <\/p>\n
One is even kind of close to home, orbiting a star that is a mere 8.1 light years from here. <\/p>\n
A University of Hertfordshire press release notes, \"Gliese 411b is a hot super-Earth with a rocky surface located in the fourth nearest star system to the Sun, making it the third nearest planetary system to the Sun. The significance of its discovery demonstrates that virtually all the nearest stars to the Sun have planets orbiting them. Planets that could be like Earth.\" <\/p>\n
See iconic moments in space exploration <\/p>\n
9 PHOTOS <\/p>\n
8 iconic moments in space exploration history <\/p>\n
See Gallery <\/p>\n
Sputnik <\/p>\n
The Soviet Union launched the first satelliteinto spaceon October 4, 1957.Sputnikis often considered to be the first victory of the infamous SpaceRace between the United States and the U.S.S.R. While the U.S. launched its first satellite less than a year later, the race was far from over. This competition was part of what ledPresident John F. Kennedy to announcea new national goal in 1961: Send an American safely to the moon by the end of the decade. <\/p>\n
(Photo via Bettmann\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
The first man in space <\/p>\n
Yuri Gagarin wasthe first man to go into space, sent there by the U.S.S.R. in April of 1961. Two monkeys namedAble and Baker, who were sent into spaceby the U.S. in 1959, had previously been the first creatures to survive a spaceflight, though Able died during an operation afterward. While the U.S. had this honor, it wasn't going to be outdone by the U.S.S.R. It sent astronaut Alan Shepard into spaceabout a month after Gagarin's trip. <\/p>\n
(Photo by Fine Art Images\/Heritage Images\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
The first woman in space <\/p>\n
Valentina Tereshkova becamethe first woman to go into spaceon June 16, 1963. Aboard the Russian spacecraftVostok 6, she orbited the Earth48 times and returned, although there are reports she was injured upon landing, according to the BBC. She married another spaceexplorer Andrian Nikolayev, and their child Elena became an interest to scientists who had never before been able to study the offspring of two individuals who had both been exposed to spacetravel. <\/p>\n
(Photo via Bettmann\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
The first African-American in space <\/p>\n
Guion \"Guy\" Bluford wasthe first African-American to go into space. Though he is attributed with this honor, his class included two other African-American astronauts. \"All of us knew that one of us would eventually step into that role,\" he said after the fact. He flew four missions, the first being in1983. However,the first person of African descent and also the first Latinoto go into spacewas actually Arnaldo Tamayo Mndez. Mndez traveled into spaceas a cosmonaut on Sept. 18, 1980, three years before Bluford. <\/p>\n
(Photo by MPI\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
Construction of the International Space Station <\/p>\n
Construction of theInternational SpaceStation (ISS)began in 1998, and it is currently thelargest artificial object within the Earth's orbit, allowing it to sometimes be seen from Earth. The station and satellite is a home for many different research projects, according toSpace.com. It also lets us have a constant presence in space, whereat least three peopleare manning the station at all times, and the number of occupants can reach as high as 10. <\/p>\n
(Photo via REUTERS\/NASA\/Handout) <\/p>\n
The first space tourist <\/p>\n
Dennis Tito, an American businessman, isthe first person who ever paid to be sent into space. Tito, now 76, went to the ISS in 2001 aboard a Russian spacecraft.He paid $20 million for his flight,and he spent six days at the SpaceStation. He later called it a \"40-year dream.\" \"The thing I have taken away from it is a sense of completeness for my life that everything else I would do in my life would be a bonus,\" he said. <\/p>\n
(Photo via Reuters) <\/p>\n
The Mars rovers <\/p>\n
The Marsexploration roverswere launched in 2003with the goal of allowing us to better understand the history of water on Mars. Spirit, the first of the Marsrovers, made its last communication in2010, while Curiosity, which landed in 2012, iscurrently still in communication withNASA. According to theSmithsonian, these rovers have brought about one of the most significant events in spaceexploration of the 21st century: the discovery that Marswas once a wet world with plenty of water, andthe later discoverythat liquid water still flows on the planet today. <\/p>\n
(Photo viaREUTERS\/NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS\/Handout) <\/p>\n
The moon landing <\/p>\n
Of course, no list on spaceexploration can be complete without a mention of one of the United States' and mankind's greatest achievements: the moon landing. On July 20, 1969,Apollo 11, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins,became the first manned lunar landing mission. Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the surface of the moon, and as he did so,he uttered the famous line, \"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.\" You can still watch thefootageof the moon landing on YouTube in a video that has over 13 million views. <\/p>\n
(Photo by NASA via Reuters) <\/p>\n
HIDE CAPTION <\/p>\n
SHOW CAPTION <\/p>\n
The international group made the observations by utilizing the radial velocity method. <\/p>\n
The Carnegie Institution for Science notes that the means, \"is one of the most successful techniques for finding and confirming planets. It takes advantage of the fact that in addition to a planet being influenced by the gravity of the star it orbits, the planet's gravity also affects the star. Astronomers are able to use sophisticated tools to detect the tiny wobble the planet induces as its gravity tugs on the star.\" <\/p>\n
They applied it to decades of data gathered by HIRES, a spectrometer affixed to the Keck-1 telescope at W.M. Keck Observatory. <\/p>\n
In addition to releasing their findings, the team publicized a staggering amount of the information the apparatus has collected over the years. <\/p>\n
More from AOL.com: Ancient volcano on Mars once erupted for 2 billion years straight Massive black hole swallows meal so big it sets a record Astronomers discover comet 100,000-times bigger than Halley's <\/p>\n
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Originally posted here: <\/p>\n
Astronomy team find dozens of potential exoplanets including a 'Super-Earth' - AOL News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A team of astronomers has located over 100 celestial bodies that could very well be previously unknown exoplanets. One is even kind of close to home, orbiting a star that is a mere 8.1 light years from here. Continue reading