(Image credit: NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech.)

Orbiting high above the Earth’s atmosphere, NASA’s Kepler spacecraft is the most sophisticated planet-finding satellite ever constructed.  Planets outside of our Solar System, mind you: exoplanets.  Having not only found over 1,000 new exoplanets since launched, Kepler has also greatly expanded our catalog of potentially habitable planets!

But the recent discovery of Kepler-22b, a rocky planet in an almost identical orbit to Earth’s around a Sun-like star, is one of the top discoveries in recent times!

With many more worlds just waiting to be found, Kepler has the world abuzz waiting for Tuesday’s big announcement: what, exactly, did they find?  Is it a world even more like our own?  (Remember, Kepler-22b isn’t our only hope, it’s just our best hope so far!)  I don’t know what you’re waiting for; check and adopt the Exoplanets Trap for yourself and find out!

-Ethan

At your request, we’ve added a couple of new sharing options to Trapit!

Click use the +1 icon to share content to your circles on Google+

Or use the email button to email an interesting article.

Personal messages are optional but always nice.

-Trapit

Our Entertainment trap this week is sure to split your sides.

There I go again with the bad jokes. I’ve never been good at telling them. Part of why I created the Comedy trap (besides my love of standup) is that I wanted to learn some good jokes. While I’m still pretty bad at retelling them, I still find myself captivated by people who aren’t. Wanna learn about which roles Richard Pryor was turned down for (I know, right? It’s Richard Pryor, for Pete’s sake)? It’s there. Interested in how much money Kevin Hart made over two days (itself a kind of joke)? You got it. Or maybe you also ruminate on the linkage between Cheers and Parks and Recreation?

The point I’m trying to make is that there’s a lot of good stuff here. Maybe while I continue to make horrible cracks like “Did you hear the one about the Indian who drank 100 cups of tea? (He was found dead the next morning in his teepee)” or “What do you call a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? (A good start)” or even “Man walks into a bar. (Says ‘ow.’),” you can continue to learn how to not suck quite so badly as I do at being funny.

-Henry