Kepler Space Telescope Finds Most Earthlike Planet Yet

NASA's  Kepler space telescope has spotted the most Earth-like alien planet yet discovered.

The XO planet is designated Kepler-452b.  This Earth-like planet is only slightly larger than Earth and orbits a sun-like star at about the same distance Earth circles the sun.

Other small, possibly habitable exoplanets have been discovered, but those previous finds orbit red dwarfs, stars much smaller and cooler than the sun.

The Kepler-452b system resides 1,400 light-years away (Just for giggles the number 5865696 followed by 6 zeros and that is how many miles light travels in just 1 year. So you do the math by timing that already huge number by how many light years K-452b is from Earth).

Kepler 452b is about 60 percent wider than Earth and the planet is probably about five times more massive than our own, making it what astronomers call a "super Earth",most likely possessing a thick atmosphere, lots of water, active volcanoes and a "year" lasting 385 days, only slightly longer than Earth's.

Kepler-452b orbits a sun like star that's just 10 percent bigger and 20 percent brighter Sol. It would feel very much like Earth.

For more check out the Space.com link

NASA's Kepler Telescope Has Discovered 1000 Earthlike Planets

As of January of 2015 NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has discovered the telltale signals of  stars with planets.  4000 in fact, have been deemed by Kepler worthy of further investigation.  As of the new year, 1000 of those 4000 have been verified as very Earth like.

HERE is the complete url for the article from he NASA

Heard of puffed rice, right? How about a "puffed" planet....

NASA's Kepler space telescope, to date, had discovered a whole slew of planets orbiting around other stars.  The most recent of which is likely to be one of the strangest.  Located 200 light-years away, planet KOI-314c orbits it's primary, a red dwarf star, in 23 days.  KOI-314c's mass however is very close to that of Earth's but the weird thing is the planet's atmosphere which makes the planet appear 60% larger than Earth. 

Since the orbital period is only 23 days, the planet's  atmosphere is about 220 degrees Fahrenheit, above the boiling point of water, which makes life as we know it moot. 

Discovery of Earth sized exo-planets are extremely difficult especially if they are close in to their primary.  Read the Discovery article HERE for the complete explanation of the method used.

One in five sunlike stars harbors an Earth-size world that orbits in a "habitable zone"

Yep, that is not a typo.  The National Geographic blog writes:

• astronomers estimate that 22 percent of sunlike stars may be orbited by small, rocky planets that reside within so-called habitable zones, where they receive Earth-like levels of sunlight.

The Kepler satellite was tasked with finding  "exoplanets," using the "transits," method of the parent star to detect the planets.

At the end of it's working life, Kepler, had stared at 150,000 stars  in the direction of the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.  Out of that group of possible candidates the astronomers studied 42,000 stars that are like our sun or slightly cooler and smaller.   The results suggest that there might well be a habitable planet within 12 light years and this planet is orbiting a sun that we could see with the naked eye!

Another thing to consider is that if we look at just the Milky Way and use the same 22% of sunlike stars containing Earth like planets, then you come up with an astronomical amount of planets and stars that resemble the Earth Sol - solar system. 

Check out the complete National Geographic article HERE

Milky Way May Have 2 Billion Earthlike Planets

Based on what Kepler's found so far, our Milky Way galaxy may be home to at least two billion Earthlike planets. Based on data from the Kepler space telescope, Dimitar Sasselov -- Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics concludes in a study that up to 2.7 percent of all suns, that resemble our own Sol, in the Milky Way may have "earthlike" planets. Kepler has confirmed 45 new planets and found an additional 1,235 planet candidates.

From the Daily Galaxy Article:

• "There are about a hundred billion sunlike stars within the Milky Way," said Joe Catanzarite, a scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "Two percent of those might have Earth analogs, so you have two billion Earth analog planets in the galaxy," he added.

Read complete Daily Galaxy article here

Astronomers estimate billions of Earth size planets

That's right I said billions. This from an article Dan brought me from the Washington Post (via the BDN) This bold number was based on an estimate by astronomers from the University of California at Berkeley, viewing a small section of sky over a four year period. The scientist posited that the number of smaller planets in a given area far outstrip that of big gas giants etc. Also the premise is that there is a strong likely-hood that at least a quarter of G class stars will have Earth size planets. In the absolutely staggering number of planets in the universe (present estimate is 5 with 22 zeros after it) a few billion of them being Earth class mass is still a small number, but still several magnitudes higher than previously thought.

That Earth mass planets are all but common may well play out when NASA's Kepler Mission begins operating early in 2011. Scientists in that project will be searching for Earth sized and possibly habitable planets.

Wiki on Kepler Mission

Do astronomers have the right to keep their findings secret?

From Smart Planet

Honest! As weird as this sounds, it is going on right now. From the article:

• The Kepler mission is a NASA program designed to find other possible Earth-like planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. The team involved have painstakingly scoured a patch of space for the tiniest signs of small planets ... and were due to release their findings June 15th–but, ... have not.

The reasoning? The Kepler people and NASA agreed:

• to delay the complete release of their findings by six months, due to launch delays and other various problems that left the team with less time to analyze their findings

Their reasoning is that there is a high risk of false positives and they want time to refine their findings. But this is when it gets a bit weird:

• The team is releasing a list of 350 possible planets, but keeping their best 400 secret for a few months for further analysis.

You just have to think that the conspiracy nuts will have a field day with this decision! Does NASA really think that their decision will limit the controversy?

You be the judge. Click the article title for the complete work.

Smallest Exoplanet Discovered

ESA Space Science reports that COROT has discovered the smallest ever estra-solar planet.
From the article:

• COROT-Exo-7b, is different: its diameter is less than twice that of Earth and it orbits its star once every 20 hours, and has a high (surface) temperature, between 1000 and 1500°C.

The composition of the planet is still is still under investigation.

• It may be rocky like Earth and covered in liquid lava. It may also belong to a class of planets that are thought to be made up of water and rock in almost equal amounts. Given the high temperatures measured, the planet would be a very hot and humid place.

<- ESA ->

NASA thinks finding Earth2 likely soon

The Daily Galaxy writes that NASA along with Harvard and the University of Colorado think that the discovery of a Earth class, habitable planet is likely to happen very soon. To date, Planet hunters have spotted more than 200 planets beyond our solar system, but the vast majority are hot, Jupiter-sized planets that would dwarf the Earth and are almost certainly lifeless. NASA along with Harvard and the University of Colorado, hav outlined how advances in technology suggest scientists are on the verge of being able to detect the presence of small, rocky planets, much like our own, around distant stars for the first time. The planets are considered the most likely habitats for extraterrestrial life.

<- Read more about new devices and techniques being used to discover new planets ->

Milkyway may be full of "alien" Earths

With the discovery of a "mini" solar system in the news (click here for previous article) Shaun Saunders sends in an article speculating on the concept that Earth-like planets in other systems may be very common.

Rocky planets like Earth could be found around most sunlike stars in our galaxy, new research suggests, further raising hopes that scientists will someday find E.T. or at least primitive life beyond our solar system. The finding is based on an analysis of dust around 309 stars with masses comparable to our sun. (Scientists) found "warm" dust, between minus 280 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (-173 to 27 degrees Celsius), orbiting at an estimated distance from their stars in the same range that Earth and Jupiter are found in our solar system. This allowed them to infer the presence of colliding larger rocky bodies, and to estimate that at least 20 percent and up to as many as 60 percent of the sunlike stars in our galaxy's disk could give rise to rocky planets like Earth.

More

Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet

European astronomers have spotted what they say is the most Earth-like planet yet outside our solar system, with balmy temperatures that could support water and, potentially, life. They have not directly seen the planet, orbiting a red dwarf star called Gliese 581. But measurements of the star suggest that a planet not much larger than the Earth is pulling on it. It appears to have a mass five times that of Earth's. The researchers suggest that its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky, like our Earth, or covered with oceans. Most of the 200 or so planets that have been spotted outside this solar system have been gas giants like Jupiter. But this one is small, with a radius that should be only 1.5 times the Earth's.