[strikespeed]

I'm only surprised that astronomers haven't concluded this long ago... Speaking of which, there has been a lot of these new astro sightings this year. Did they do something to the Kepler? I thought that spacetelescope was abandoned due to technical problems. What am I missing?

[ceejayoz]

Confirming a Kepler planet requires observing multiple transits of the planet, so it takes several years if it's an Earth-like orbit. On top of that, the analysis and confirmation and peer review take time.

Incidentally, Kepler's been partially revived - they're going to point it somewhere else that doesn't require the reaction wheels to stay stable.

[robertfw]

The data from these observatories can take some time to analyze. As for the spacecraft, they are currently investigating whether there is other science, or other methods to hunt for exoplanets, that can be performed despite the loss of half of the reaction wheels.

[VLM]

data mining, paper writing, and peer review are inherently slow. We'll be seeing new Kepler papers for quite a few more years, I think.