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NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star
NASA ^
| 12/5/2011
| NASA
Posted on 12/05/2011 10:46:16 AM PST by Dallas59
NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets. The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. Scientists don't yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.
TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: exoplanet; kepler; kepler22b; science; xplanets
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To: Oatka
They could be in that cloaked ship checking out our Messenger satellite that’s in orbit around Mercury!
41
posted on
12/05/2011 4:45:35 PM PST
by
Jack Hydrazine
(It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
To: Oatka
The Roswellians - or those folks mentioned on "Ancient Aliens". :-) SHHH!
They prefer to be called Czechoslovakians...
42
posted on
12/05/2011 5:33:23 PM PST
by
GreenLanternCorps
("Barack Obama" is Swahili for "Jimmy Carter".)
To: GraceG
2X gravity is not all that bad, it would be like being overweight when fit and for someone who is fit you would get used to it. Depends on if your knees are in good shape or not.
43
posted on
12/06/2011 3:32:32 AM PST
by
hattend
(If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. - Cameron Connor)
To: Jack Hydrazine
What vantage point was that viewed from?
44
posted on
12/06/2011 4:20:13 AM PST
by
wastedyears
(Not too long you devious little parathyroid. Soon I'll be rid of you and I'll be free.)
To: wastedyears
I could be the SOHO satellite or STEREO A or B satellites that watch the Sun.
45
posted on
12/06/2011 6:45:24 AM PST
by
Jack Hydrazine
(It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
To: The Cajun; All
29 posted on Monday, December 05, 2011 1:59:53 PM by The Cajun: “Sad, more discoveries are being made about possible habitable planets and we don't have a viable space program anymore. Serious actual work on really advanced drives should be going on, not just theoretical work and damn sure no more crap like the ISS.”
Hey, that's not all bad. Why should we white guys mess up the rest of the galaxy with European-style socialism since America seems to be gleefully going down the same path?
After all, it's the Chinese who need more space to put people, anyway, and they seem to be doing a better job of learning capitalist principles than we white guys are in remembering them.
(Sarcasm alert intended... but not entirely tongue-in-cheek, unfortunately.)
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