Close Family

An artist's concept shows a family of six planets orbiting a star known as Kepler 11, which was discovered by the planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft. The six planets are packed in close to the star; all orbit at less than half of Earth's distance from the Sun. They were discovered as they crossed in front of the star (as three are doing in this illustration), blocking a tiny bit of the star's light. Kepler has discovered evidence of about 1,200 other worlds in other star systems, but most of them are awaiting confirmation. [NASA/Tim Pyle]