an-international-team-of-scientists-have-confirmed-the-discovery-of-nearly-100-new-exoplanets-planets-located-outside-our-solar-system-the-discovery-was-based-on-data-from-the-second-mission-of-nasa-s-kepler-space-telescope-or-k2-released-in-2014-k2-searches-for-exoplanet-transits-by-registering-dips-in-light-caused-by-the-shadow-of-an-exoplanet-as-it-crosses-in-front-of-its-host-star-the-researchers-found-that-some-of-the-signals-were-caused-by-multiple-star-systems-or-noise-from-the-spacecraft-but-they-also-detected-planets-that-range-from-sub-earth-sized-to-the-size-of-jupiter-and-larger-one-of-the-planets-detected-was-orbiting-a-very-bright-star-quot-we-validated-a-planet-on-a-10-day-orbit-around-a-star-called-hd-212657-which-is-now-the-brightest-star-found-by-k2-missions-to-host-a-validated-planet-quot-said-lead-author-andrew-mayo-doctoral-student-at-the-national-space-institute-dtu-space-at-the-technical-university-of-denmark-for-the-study-appearing-in-the-astronomical-journal-the-team-started-out-analysing-275-candidates-of-which-149-were-validated-as-real-exoplanets-in-turn-95-of-these-planets-have-proved-to-be-new-discoveries-mayo-said-the-kepler-spacecraft-was-first-launched-in-2009-to-hunt-for-exoplanets-in-a-single-patch-of-sky-but-in-2013-a-mechanical-failure-crippled-the-telescope-however-astronomers-and-engineers-devised-a-way-to-repurpose-and-save-the-space-telescope-by-changing-its-field-of-view-periodically-this-solution-paved-the-way-for-the-follow-up-k2-mission-adding-the-newly-discovered-exoplanets-brings-the-total-number-of-exoplanets-by-k2-mission-to-almost-300-the-study-said-the-first-planet-orbiting-a-star-similar-to-our-own-sun-was-detected-only-in-1995-today-some-3-600-exoplanets-have-been-found-ranging-from-rocky-earth-sized-planets-to-large-gas-giants-like-jupiter