Guests: John Batchelor, Dr. Jeff Coughlin, Dr. David Livingston. Topics: Kepler mission false positives for finding exoplanets. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We do not permit the commercial use of any Space Show program or part thereof, nor do we permit Space Show programs to be edited, placed on YouTube, or other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted in news articles, papers, academic & research work but must be cited or referenced in the proper citation format. Contact Dr. Livingston for questions about our copyright and trademark policies which we do enforce. This program is archived on The Space Show website, podcasting, and blog sites with permission from John Batchelor. Please visit the John Batchelor Show website for more information about this fine program, www.johnbatchelorshow.com. Remember, your Amazon Purchases Can Help Support The Space Show/OGLF (www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm). For those of you listening to archives on live365.com & rating the programs, please email me the reasons for your rating. This will definitely help improve Space Show programming. Thank you. Please note that audio and transition issues are a result of copying the John Batchelor broadcast & are not within my control as they originate in the Batchelor studio. John Batchelor and I welcomed Dr. Jeff Coughlin to discuss the recent announcements about the false positives for finding exoplanets regarding the Kepler mission. False positives for identifying exoplanets regarding large bodies is upwards of 52%. Our guest discussed why this was so and why the discovery of the false positive rate for large objects was not a big surprise. False positives for smaller exoplanets is not nearly as high as for the large bodies. Dr. Coughlin talked about the process used to confirm that an object is an exoplanet rather than something else. The process involves the use of ground based observations, the study of brightness of the object, and much more. He talked about how the James Webb Space Telescope will make it easier to detect exoplanets from something else though the use of Hubble is not that applicable given how hard it is to get time on Hubble and the cost of using Hubble. Dr. Coughlin suggested that finding an Earth-like exoplanet with an oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere is certainly possible within "our" lifetime and he said he was optimistic about finding such a discovery. You can email Mr. Batchelor or Dr. Coughlin through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.