New earth-like planet discovered

The planet’s confirmation was announced by NASA along with other discoveries by its Kepler telescope.


Express December 14, 2011

If you grew up believing in the existence of extraterrestrial life, now’s the time to get really excited. A newly discovered planet is very similar to Earth and is sitting outside our solar system in what seems to be the ideal place for life, except for one hitch. It’s a bit too big.

The planet is right in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone, that hard to find place that’s not too hot, not too cold, where water, which is essential for life, doesn’t freeze or boil. And it has a shopping mall-like surface temperature of near 22 degrees, scientists say.

The planet’s confirmation was announced by NASA along with other discoveries by its Kepler telescope, which was launched on a planet-hunting mission in 2009.

That’s the first planet confirmed in the habitable zone for Kepler, which had already found Earth-like rocky planets elsewhere. Twice before astronomers have announced a planet found in that zone, but neither have been as promising.

The new planet — named Kepler-22b — has key aspects it shares with Earth. It circles a star that could be the twin of our sun and at just about the same distance. The planet’s year of 290 days is even close to ours. It likely has water and rock.

The only trouble is the planet’s a bit big for life to exist on the surface. The planet is about 2.4 times the size of Earth. It could be more like the gas-and-liquid Neptune with only a rocky core and mostly ocean.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2011.

COMMENTS (24)

hehe | 12 years ago | Reply

oooooooooooooooooooooookkkkkkkkk

Yuri Kondratyuk | 12 years ago | Reply

@Some One:

To you is your way and to me is my way

Agreed! will you be so nice as to apologize for calling me stubborn, you will close your brain from understanding the truth?

BTW, if god is true, then truth itself is a representation of god. Else, if falsehood and dogma is accepted as truth, then, it implies rejection of god, if not an insult to god. What I have stated is pure logic based on scientific facts. If you reject it, so be it. But, you cannot deny that search for truth is same as a search for god. Since god is the ultimate truth.

The rising and setting sun each day is not probabilistic but deterministic. Because it ALWAYS happens

Once again, the fundamental nature of matter is always probabilistic. So do you agree that god doesn't hold at sub-atomic levels and exists only on a macro scale?

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