Breaking: Discovery of ‘Habitable’ Earth-Like Planet Announced

observer.com ^ | 07/23/15 12:20pm | Robin Seemangal

[ckilmer]

Breaking: Discovery of ‘Habitable’ Earth-Like Planet Announced

The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute and planet hunters from The National Aeronautics and Space Administration have made a startling discovery while exploring the Milky Way Galaxy

By Robin Seemangal | 07/23/15 12:20pm

 

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Artist’s concept depicts the earth-like planet Kepler-452b (NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle)

The SETI Institute and NASA have confirmed the discovery of Kepler 452b, the most Earth-like planet ever encountered. Located in the Goldilocks zone of its host star, this planet would have “just the right” conditions to support liquid water and possibly even life. This extraordinary world was spotted by the Kepler Space Telescope and is the first confirmed planet among over 500 potential candidates being added to the mission’s catalogue.

“Kepler 452b takes us one step closer to understanding how many habitable planets are out there,” said Joseph Twicken, SETI’s lead scientific programmer for the Kepler mission.

The planet is 1,400 light-years away from our Solar System and orbits a star astronomers call our Sun’s cousin. While this star is four percent more massive and ten percent brighter, the distance between it and Kepler 452b is approximately the same as Earth’s distance from the Sun. The planet itself has a radius 60 percent larger than Earth and is suspected to be rocky, with a thick atmosphere and a significant amount of water.

Kepler 452b’s host star is 1.5 billion years older than ours, and will give scientists a glimpse into how the Sun’s age will eventually affect Earth. “The increasing energy from its aging sun might be heating the surface and evaporating any oceans. The water vapor would be lost from the planet forever,” said Doug Caldwell, a SETI scientist assigned to the Kepler mission. “Kepler 452b could be experiencing now what the Earth will undergo more than a billion years from now, as the Sun ages and grows brighter.”

Artist impression of the surface of the Earth-like Kepler 452b (Photo: SETI Institute)

Launched nine years ago, The Kepler Space Telescope identifies possible planets by using the ‘transit method’ of observing the periodically dimming light of the stars in its trajectory. We know definitively that there are three types of exoplanets littering the galaxy: ice giants, gas giants and hot super-Earths. The Kepler mission’s challenge is to find terrestrial planets that are one half to two times the size of Earth. The ultimate goal is to determine the percentage of the hundreds of billions of stars that might be home to such a world.

Kepler has already identified more than 1,000 exoplanets since the beginning of its journey, by measuring the depth of the ‘transit’ and the size of their stars. A planet’s average temperature can be calculated using the distance of the orbit and the temperature of the star. This is the determining measurement when classifying an exoplanet as habitable. Before today’s announcement, the two most Earth-like planets discovered were Kepler 438b and Kepler 442b, which are larger than Earth and orbit red dwarfs—stars that are significantly cooler than the Sun.

“Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago. Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years — another Earth,” teased NASA prior to today’s press conference.

Robin Seemangal focuses on NASA and advocacy for space exploration. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, where he currently resides. Find him on Instagram for more space-related content: @not_gatsby

Read more at http://observer.com/2015/07/breaking-discovery-of-habitable-earth-like-planet-announced/#ixzz3gjx0ovpq
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[Justa]

Dude, kinetic travel through space to another star system is insane. There is a 100% chance of catastrophic destruction from debris. At the required speeds even atoms will ablate the craft to nothing over such distances.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ckilmer.

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[ken in texas]

True, and you’ll be OK as long as you don’t wear a red shirt when you go down to the planet surface. /s

[navyguy]

It would for awhile, but if the star it orbits is dying then it’s likely getting bigger and bigger (Red Giant). When that happens solar radiation increases and starts blowing atmospheric gases off of the planet, sending that water vapor and various other gases into space. So as the planet orbits the star it has a comet like tail that always points away from the star. Until the entire atmosphere has been blown away. Then you’re left with a really hot rock.

[Boogieman]

Luckily we’ll never have to worry about that because we can’t actually accelerate anything that fast.

It’s theoretically possible that we could find some other way to travel FTL, like warp drives, or wormholes, but there is no way we can just keep our foot on the gas and get to that speed in the conventional way.

[PrairieDawg]

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS—EXCEPT EUROPA KEPLER 425B
ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE

[Vendome]

We should invade and colonize

[Iscool]

:)

[I want the USA back]

I just made a reservation. No 0bama! No Hillary!

[LivingNet]

Wow! What an amazing coincidence, the Kepler spacecraft found the only “habitable” planet, Kepler 452-b!

It is just as amazing as Lou Gehrig dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. What are the odds???

[jjotto]

Reminds me of the winningest pitcher to never win MLB’s Cy Young Award.

[Justa]

Worm holes. Worm hole drive is the only way imo. Imagine a 10 mile jump 1,000 times a second at zero actual velocity. That’s solar exploitation speed. With higher energies the worm holes/jumps can be farther distances. It just requires a large energy supply. The worm hole drive itself requires something else, beyond contemporary physics.

[Boogieman]

“The worm hole drive itself requires something else, beyond contemporary physics.”

Yeah, that’s a pretty big issue. It might make a feasible mode of travel, but before we can see if it’s feasible, we have to figure out if it is even possible.

Personally, I doubt we will ever be able to travel through a wormhole, either a natural one, or one we generate, and survive the trip. I believe we’d have to endure some pretty immense forces, akin to what you’d experience inside a black hole, and what could protect us from that?

Perhaps a combination of the warp and wormhole concepts could work. If you could create a space-time warp bubble around the ship, that is about the only thing I can think of that might protect you while you traverse the wormhole.

[anymouse]

More wishful fantasy spinning by NASA in hopes of keeping funding for dubious science.
Every year they run this play during Congresses deliberation on NASA funding.

[Fledermaus]

“They” have been telling me this for 50 years.

[Justa]

The worm hole is not gravitationally-induced it is electrically-induced.

A worm hole drive is a ‘warp drive’. ‘Holes’ of larger distances correlate to increased relative velocity. It is not a “hole” per se as it is a modification of the space the vehicle occupies to another point in space. The change in location occurs at the speed of light (electricity). The distances between the jumps can represent (in aggregate) a velocity much greater than the speed of light all the while vehicle occupants experience zero inertial effect.

[Boogieman]

Hmm, I’ll have to read more about this idea, I had only ever heard of traditional worm holes, not electrically-induced ones. Not sure how that would even be possible.

[BwanaNdege]

These writers of real estate property descriptions are all the same no matter the size or distance of the listing.

“Newly listed planet. Charming fixer-upper in a rural neighborhood. The commute is a bit long (1400 light years), but the tranquility when you arrive makes the journey worthwhile.”

“Homeowners Association managed by the Romulans. Pest control provided by the Borg. “

“Ready to move in...”

/s

Seriously, 1400 light years away and they imagine they can tell if it is habitable?

[Gil4]

“Send a seed ship.”

Where do we send nominations?

[ThomasMore]

True...but all great discoveries find their source in stuff like this.