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Originally Posted by GreenLantern
Very interesting... I would love to see some kind of photo evidence of another earth like planet in my life time. Civilization or not doesn't matter to me, I am more interested to see what they atmosphere consists of and how it interacts with the environment compared to our own.
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I don't think we'll see photo evidence. The existence of these planets is inferred as they pass in front of their suns.
Kepler will detect planets indirectly, using the "transit" method. A transit occurs each time a planet crosses the line-of-sight between the planet's parent star that it is orbiting and the observer. When this happens, the planet blocks some of the light from its star, resulting in a periodic dimming. This periodic signature is used to detect the planet and to determine its size and its orbit.