Some interesting information. So, Kepler has increased the number of exo planets found todate which was to be expected. The number of exo planets has increased from around 400. From the article it looks like kepler has found another 1235. That seems to suggest the total number of exo planets stands at over 1600?
Its important to understand however that most of these 'exo planetary' finds are candidates which means they could be large asteroids etc and further investigation is required to confirm them as exo planets.
Despite this, very few multiple planetary systems have been found, in the region of 170 exo solar systems with 2 or more planets. Only 68 of kepler's 1235 exo planet candidates are less than 1.25 times the width of Earth. A mere 2 dozen appear less than the width of the Earth.
Of planets found in the HZ of a star, only 5 are small enough to be rocky like the Earth (according to this article).
The kepler data or at least all the articles I've read so far, none of the host stars with planets in the HZ appear to be main sequence stars like our own and, are perhaps more red dwarfs?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20079-found-dozens-of-planet-candidates-smaller-than-earth.htmlNASA's Kepler space telescope has found the smallest planet candidates yet, some of which are even smaller than Earth. It has also spotted 54 planet candidates in the habitable zones of their stars, where liquid water – and therefore perhaps life – could exist on the planets' surfaces.
Kepler launchedMovie Camera in 2009 on a mission to determine how common Earth-sized planets are in the habitable zones of their stars. It detects planets by watching for the slight dimming that results when a planet passes in front of its parent star as seen from Earth – an event called a transit.
Now, mission scientists say they have found 1235 planet candidates in data taken during the telescope's first four months of observations, from mid-May to mid-September 2009. Kepler has continued to make observations since then, but team members are still analysing the data.
The newly announced candidates include:
68 roughly Earth-sized candidates, each less than 1.25 times as wide as Earth
288 super-Earth candidates, between 1.25 and 2 times the size of Earth
662 Neptune-sized candidates
184 Jupiter-sized or larger candidates
170 possible multi-planet systems, with two or more candidates orbiting the same star
About two dozen of the candidates appear to be smaller than Earth. Some of these are about the size of Mars – which is half the size of Earth – said Kepler's chief scientist, William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. If confirmed, these would be by far the smallest planets ever found around normal stars. The current record is a confirmed planet found by Kepler that is 1.4 times Earth's width.
Of the planets in the habitable zones of their stars, five are small enough to be rocky like Earth, spanning between 0.9 and 2 times our planet's width. The others are giants like Neptune or Jupiter, which have no solid or liquid surface on which life could take hold. But these could still have Earth-sized moons that are habitable, Borucki said.