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

NASA Discovers First Earth-sized Planet in Habital Zone

 

In a startling discovery, astronomer Thomas Barclay from Nasa’s Ames Research Center in Palo Alto, California 

• has discovered a habitable planet almost the same size as Earth orbiting an unidentified star in its so-called Goldilocks zone - a region around the star that emits just enough energy, light and temperature for liquid surface water to appear. 

The planet's data was captured by the Kepler space telescope.  The planet was observed indirectly while orbiting an unnamed M1 dwarf star better known as red dwarfs.   

From the article:

These are much smaller and dimmer than Earth’s sun, and aren’t bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Also  these stars make up around 70 per cent of all the stars in the galaxy.Barclay made the discovery using data collected by the Kepler space telescope. The planet sits on the outer edge of its star's habitable zone.

Check out the complete facinating article Here

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 Contain 60 Billion Life Supporting Planets?!

Scientists using the Kepler spacecraft have redoubled their estimates on planets in the Milky Way that could support life.

Estimates now put the number at an astounding 60 billion planets that could support life.   This mind numbing figure comes on the heels of  Kepler's findings.

Scientists base their estimates on the most common star in the Milky Way, red dwarfs.  Their rational being that each red dwarf's habitable zone contains a life supporting planet. 

The problem though is red dwarf stars are exceedingly miserly with it's energy.   Dorian Abbot, an assistant professor in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago suggests that planets in the "Goldilocks" zone may well have thick cloud cover to trap infrared energy.  

There is an excellent film concerning discovering extra-solar planets at THIS link

Tatooine May Exsist?!

Oh you Star Wars fans are going to love this one! Remember in the earlier part of the first Star Wars movie when Luke looks up into the glare of the dual suns on Tatooine? Well it seems that the Kepler space telescope has pulled another rabbit out of the hat by finding a planetary system that for all world reminds on of planet Tatooine.

Dan pointed me towards this article that details the very strange planetary system of Kepler 47. For it seems that this system of planets orbits not one but two suns!  Plus the Kepler 47 suns  are themselves orbiting each other and do so in as little a 7.5 days!  The two planets (kepler 47b & 47c) are themselves in varying degrees of odd.  47b orbits the pair of stars in less than 50 days where 47c orbits the pair every 303 days. This would put the planet in the "habitable zone," where life could possibly exist because of liquid water.

NASA announced that Kepler-47 is 4,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. This discovery seems to prove that planets can for in the highly unstable space around a binary star system. Plus it goes further to show that once these planets form, they can "persist" in the system for very long periods.

Astronomers found two planets in the Kepler 47 system that orbit two stars

Of course if you were standing on the surface of the "Tatooine" planet, the stars would not look very much like those out of Star Wars. One star is about the size of our sun but is only about 85% as bright. The other is very small, in the range of 1/3 the size of Sol and putting out only 1% as much energy.

Astronomers were quick to point out that two or more stars in a system are not unusual. The question to this point was, could a planet form in such an unstable system. Now they know that they can and do form.

NASA Kepler 47 article here

artwork NASA