Posted on 12/05/2011 4:18:42 PM PST by presidio9
NASA announced a major milestone in the quest for life in the universe Monday: The discovery of another planet close enough to the sun it orbits to potentially support life.
Called Kepler-22b, the planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth and about 600 light-years away. And it orbits in the "habitable zone," the region of space just far enough from a star that liquid water could exist on the planet's surface -- a discovery could have profound implications in the quest for alien life, said Alan Boss, an astrophysicist with Carnegie Melon University.
“This discovery supports the growing belief that we live in a universe crowded with life,” Boss said. “Kepler is on the verge of determining the actual abundance of habitable, Earth-like planets in our galaxy."
The host star lies about 600 light-years away from us (1 light year is about 6 trillion miles) toward the constellations of Lyra and Cygnus, the researchers said, and is about 25 percent less luminous than the Sun. Kepler-22b orbits the star every 290 days, as compared with 365 days for the Earth, at a distance about 15 percent closer to its star than the Earth from the Sun -- close enough to suggest a pleasing, balmy temperature on the surface.
Such a temperature means liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet, something necessary for life as we know it -- and this new planet might well be not only habitable but perhaps even inhabited.
-SNIP-
Of the 54 habitable zone planet candidates reported in February 2011, Kepler-22b is the first to be confirmed.
The milestone will be published in an upcoming article in The Astrophysical Journal.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
U.S. Dept of Moon
Timeshares? Retirement commmunities?
Funny how earthlings appoint so much importance to this tiny planet....Suggesting this little planet is the only one out of trillions which can support life or harbors life.
Nerd alert: I guess there really is a class M planet.
Operative word: “COULD”.
Remember Father Guido Sarduci(sp) from the old Saturday Night Live? He once said they found a planet identical to Earth. Everything was the same, blue sky, green grass, water, people, everything identical to Earth except they eat their corn on the cob verticly instead of horizontally.
Strange the things one remembers, that has to be 30 years ago!
I wish these science writers would tone down the use of the term “earthlike” and its related forms.
Not sure how it matters. I doubt we will ever visit it soon enough to matter to any of us and our near-term descendants except perhaps with a probe.
Kepler-22b orbits the star every 290 days, as compared with 365 days for the Earth, at a distance about 15 percent closer to its star than the Earth from the Sun — close enough to suggest a pleasing, balmy temperature on the surface.
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If we could just drill more oil we might be a pleasing as kepler 22b!
BUMP
Are you kidding? 600 light years away. do you understand what that means?
Too late. Red China has already put a claim on the most promising real estate.
Plus, at the moment they are much better prepared to actually get there than we are.
Barracka Klatu Nickto?
Marked for reading
I doubt very much that this ‘Kepler-22b’ call itself Kepler-22b. Would you?
Let’s colonize before it’s inhabited by libtards!
Maybe that will happen after people on this website finally get a grip on the appropriate usage of the acronym "RINO."
By today's standards, Ronald Reagan seems to qualify.
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