“This is a phenomenal discovery in the course of human history,” Geoff Marcy of University of California, Berkeley, one of the pioneers of planet-hunting outside our solar system, told the NY Daily in an email. “This discovery shows that we Homo sapiens are straining our reach into the universe to find planets that remind us of home. We are almost there.”

Extraterrestrial life is the big hope for what just might be on Kepler-22b, which is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth and circling a star – very similar to our own Sun – about 600 light years away.

NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which found the new ‘exoplanet,’ is looking at hundreds of bodies, but Kepler-22b is the smallest yet found to orbit in the sweet spot of a solar system like ours. However, it is feared that the planet’s surface may be too large for life to exist on it. It could be more of like Neptune, which a gas-and-liquid planet, except with a rocky core and ocean.

Scientists are now investigating the composition of the Earth-like orb to determine if it is comprised mainly of rock, gas, or liquid.

“Still, this is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth’s twin,” said Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. “Kepler’s results continue to demonstrate the importance of NASA’s science missions, which aim to answer some of the biggest
questions about our place in the universe.”

Besides Kepler-22b, more than 700 ‘exoplanets’ that have been spotted and verified outside our solar system down the years, but not enough research has been done to confirm if they are truly habitable at this time.

via USA Today

Kepler-22b: NASA Discovers New Earth-Like Planet is a post from: The Inquisitr

Nasa’s newly-dicsovered planet Kepler 22-b which is about 2.4 times the size of Earth is now the new target for possible life beyond Earth. For one, the planet which lies in the ‘Goldilocks zone’ is said to have a surface temperature of about 72 degrees or 22 Celsius.

‘Goldilocks zone’ refers to the habitable zone or the region around a star where temperatures are neither too high nor too low for liquid water to exist.

Astronomers also believe that there’s water and land in the new planet though no one is sure yet if the planet is made mostly of rock, gas, or liquid.

The planet is 600 light-years away and orbits a star cooler than the Sun every 290 days.

William Borucki of NASA’s Ames Research Center and leader of the team that discovered Kepler 22-b revealed:

“If this planet has surface, it would have a very nice temperature of some 70 degrees Fahrenheit. There’s a good chance it could be rocky. We have no planets line this in our own solar system.”

Borucki even hinted that it could probably contain huge amounts of compressed ice and may even have a global ocean.

Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at Nasa Headquarters in Washington, added:

“This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth’s twin. Kepler’s results continue to demonstrate the importance of Nasa’s science missions, which aim to answer some of the biggest questions about our place in the universe.”

So, while we wait, if ever we will get the chance to confirm whether Kepler 22-b can indeed be the next hope for life beyond Earth, why don’t we all settle down and take care of what we have now. Otherwise, we earthlings are not even worthy of having a chance on another planet.

Life Beyond Earth? There’s Hope in Kepler 22-b is a post from: The Inquisitr

Astronomers at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory announced on Wednesday the discovery of a new exoplanet close to the size of Earth.

Kepler-21b, as it has been named, is about 352 light years away from us which, in astronomical terms, essentially makes it a next door neighbor to planet Earth. While it may share similarities with Earth in terms of size, there is just about no chance life could exist on the planet.

The Earth-like planet orbits so close to its parent star that astronomers estimate the temperatures on the planet likely exceed 2,960 Fahrenheit (1,627 Celsius), which is hot enough to melt iron.

It may not be capable of harboring life, but scientists are still excited by the discovery of Kepler-21b. Thousands of alien planets have been discovered over the past 10 years, but none of them were quite as small, or quite as Earth-like, as Kepler-21b. The planet has a mass 10 times that of Earth’s, but its radius is only 1.6 times larger.

“Until a few years ago, the smallest extra-solar planet that we had discovered was the size of Jupiter or Saturn, which are about ten times bigger than the Earth,” Katy Garmany, the Deputy Press Officer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, told Huffington Post. “Now we’re getting down to something almost the size of the Earth, showing that we have the technology to find the earth-size planets.”

via Space.com

Newly discovered alien planet hot enough to melt iron is a post from: The Inquisitr