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Planet in sweet spot of Goldilocks zone for life; Its star could almost be a twin of our sun

 
 
Reply Tue 6 Dec, 2011 11:46 am
Planet in sweet spot of Goldilocks zone for life
comfy 72 degrees. Its star could almost be a twin of our sun. It likely has water and land.
By Seth Borenstein - AP Science Writer
December 6, 2011

WASHINGTON—A newly discovered planet is eerily similar to Earth and is sitting outside our solar system in what seems to be the ideal place for life, except for one hitch. It's a bit too big.

The planet is smack in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone, that hard to find place that's not too hot, not too cold, where water, which is essential for life, doesn't freeze or boil. And it has a shopping mall-like surface temperature of near 72 degrees, scientists say.

The planet's confirmation was announced Monday by NASA along with other discoveries by its Kepler telescope, which was launched on a planet-hunting mission in 2009.

That's the first planet confirmed in the habitable zone for Kepler, which had already found Earth-like rocky planets elsewhere. Twice before astronomers have announced a planet found in that zone, but neither have been as promising.

"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, said 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."

The new planet -- named Kepler-22b -- has key aspects it shares with Earth. It circles a star that could be the twin of our sun and at just about the same distance. The planet's year of 290 days is even close to ours. It likely has water and rock.

The only trouble is the planet's a bit big for life to exist on the surface. The planet is about 2.4 times the size of Earth. It could be more like the gas-and-liquid Neptune with only a rocky core and mostly ocean.

"It's so exciting to imagine the possibilities," said Natalie Batalha, the Kepler deputy science chief.

Floating on that "world completely covered in water" could be like being on an Earth ocean and "it's not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean," Batalha said in a phone interview.

Kepler can't find life itself, just where the conditions might be right for it to thrive. And when astronomers look for life elsewhere they're talking about everything ranging from microbes to advanced intelligence that can be looking back at us.

So far the Kepler telescope has spotted 2,326 candidate planets outside our solar system with 139 of them potentially habitable ones. Even though the confirmed Kepler-22b is a bit big, it is still smaller than most of the other candidates. It is closest to Earth in size, temperature and star than either of the two previously announced planets in the zone.

The confirmation of one of two, though, has been disputed. The latest discovery has been confirmed several ways, including by two other telescopes.

Earlier this year, a European team of astronomers said they had confirmed another planet in the habitable zone, but that one was hot and barely on the inside edge of the habitable zone.

For Marcy, who is on the Kepler team, the newest planet is a smidgen too large. But, "that smidgen makes all the difference," he said.

Because its size implies that it's closer to Neptune in composition than Earth, "I would bet my telescope that there is no hard, rocky surface to walk on," Marcy said.

Chief Kepler scientist William Borucki said he thinks the planet is somewhere between Earth and gas-and-liquid Neptune, but that it has a lot of rocky material. It's in a size range that scientists don't really know anything about. Measurements next summer may help astronomers have a better idea of its makeup, he said.

The planet is 600 light years away. Each light year is 5.9 trillion miles. It would take a space shuttle about 22 million years to get there.

Kepler spots a planet when it passes in front of its star. NASA requires three of those sightings before it begins to confirm it as a planet. Borucki said the third sighting for 22b happened a year ago, just before the telescope shut down for a while. It took several months to finish the confirmation.

"It's a great gift," Borucki said. "We consider this sort of our Christmas planet."

DRAWING:

This undated handout artist rendering provided by NASA shows Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star's habitable zone -- the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. NASA has found the new planet outside our solar system that's eerily similar to Earth in key aspects. Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a comfy 72 degrees. Its star could almost be a twin of our sun. It likely has water and land. This undated handout artist rendering provided by NASA shows Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star's habitable zone -- the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. NASA has found the new planet outside our solar system that's eerily similar to Earth in key aspects. Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a

NASA's Kepler Telescope: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler
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BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Tue 6 Dec, 2011 12:29 pm
@BumbleBeeBoogie,
NASA announces discovery of 'earth-sized' planet
By Lisa M. Krieger | McClatchy-Tribune News Service

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Our world felt a little less special on Monday, as NASA's Kepler mission announced the discovery of an "earth-sized" planet orbiting a "sun-like" star.

Yes, another one.

But this new orb merits special status - because it's the first planet to be officially confirmed to exist in the so-called "habitable zone." It's an ideal size. It orbits just the right distance from its star. And its star is a lot like our own sun.

This means that the planet, called Kepler-22b, is the best bet yet to be a place with a thick atmosphere and a wet landscape.

The discovery "is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," said Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, visiting Moffet Field's NASA Ames in California for the five-day First Kepler Science Conference.

If this all sounds a little familiar, it's because we're getting better and better at finding things.

Twice before astronomers have announced near-Earth-size planets in habitable zones, although clear confirmation has proved elusive.

The tally of confirmed and "candidate" planets grows every day. Just a year and a half into Kepler's planet-hunting mission, there are 28 confirmed planets and 2,326 candidate planets - of which a stunning 1,000 have been found since February.

Of the 54 candidate planets in the "habitable" zone, where liquid water could exist, Kepler-22b is the first to be confirmed. This milestone will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The powerful telescopes are finding other things, too. In another big announcement on Monday, using telescopes at the Hawaii-based Keck Observatory and the McDonald Observatory in Texas, astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley announced the discovery of the largest black holes to date - two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are capable of consuming anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.

The $600 million Kepler spacecraft peers at about 150,000 stars in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra, trying to detect any change in star brightness that suggests a passing planet. Three dips, or dimming, must be seen for confirmation.

The Kepler science team uses ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope to review observations on planet candidates that the spacecraft finds, validating their identity.

"The tremendous growth in the number of Earth-size candidates tells us that we're honing in on the planets Kepler was designed to detect: those that are not only Earth-size, but also are potentially habitable," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State University.

"The more data we collect, the keener our eye for finding the smallest planets out at longer orbital periods," she said.

The planet, named Kepler-22b, is 2.4 times wider than Earth.

But the true nature of the new planet remains a mystery. No one knows whether it's rocky, gaseous or liquid.

If it has a surface, astronomers estimate temperatures in the comfy 70-degree range - T shirt weather.

To better understand the Kepler 22-b's composition, it is first necessary to measure its density and mass - that is, how heavy it is. The Kepler telescope can't do this, but Keck and other ground-based telescopes can. Scientists hope to try this next summer.

And we don't yet have the tools to detect far-away signs of metabolism, with biological markers like atmospheric oxygen or methane.

But any notion of earthlings settling down on Kepler 22-b has one highly significant challenge: distance. The space shuttle, heading out today at 17,000 mph, would reach our nearest star system - Alpha Centauri, slightly more than four light years away - in about 165,000 years. The new planet is 600 light years away - so that same shuttle would get there in 23 million years.

But Kepler-22b seems to have several intriguing similarities with Earth. Its home star, some 600 light years away, is "almost a solar twin," Batahla said. So the light hitting the planet's surface would be almost the same color as the light that illuminates Earth.

And Kepler-22b's year is almost the same length as an Earth year: 290 days instead of 365.

It is a prime target for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), carried out with the dedicated 42-dish Allen Telescope Array in Northern California, said Jill Tarter of Mountain View's SETI Institute.

A preliminary search for radio signals from Kepler-22b is already under way, she said. There are billions of radio channels to be examined.

Discovering all these new planets sounds impressive - but it's only a prologue to a far larger story, according to SETI Institute's Seth Shostak, in response to Monday's news.

"Extrapolating the results from searches, it's safe to say that the vast majority of stars are ringed by planets," he wrote. "Indeed, the best guess is that the tally of planets in our own galaxy is approximately a trillion."

"It's reasonable to imagine," according to Shostak, "that Kepler-22b has a billion siblings in our galaxy: a billion other Earth-like worlds threading the vast tracts of the Milky Way."

Lisa M. Krieger writes for the San Jose Mercury News.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/06/132270/nasa-announces-discovery-of-earth.html#ixzz1fmSXRZ7e
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Sat 10 Dec, 2011 04:23 am
@BumbleBeeBoogie,
NASA finds new planet Kepler 22b outside solar system with temperature right for life
Published: December 7
Washington Post

NASA announced finding an Earth-like planet outside outside the solar system that could have have the right temperature to support life. As Brian Vastag reported :

The search for Earth-like planets circling other stars is heating up, but the latest discovery is not too hot at all. It’s not too cold, either. Instead, the temperature on the newly announced planet Kepler-22b could be just right for life — about 72 degrees, a perfect spring day on Earth.

Spied by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, Kepler-22b marks the best candidate yet for a life-bearing world beyond our solar system, project scientists said Monday.

If it has a surface, it ought to have a nice temperature,” said Kepler’s lead scientist, Bill Borucki, during a teleconference Monday.

“It’s right in the middle of the habitable zone,” said Natalie Batahla, a Kepler scientist, referring to the narrow, balmy band of space around any star where water can be liquid. “The other exciting thing is that it orbits a star very, very similar to our own sun.”

The actual temperature on Kepler-22b hinges on whether the planet has an atmosphere, which, like a blanket, would warm the surface. Even without an atmosphere, Borucki said, the planet would likely be warm enough to host liquid water on its surface.

If it has a surface.

Kepler 22b is in what scientists call the Goldilocks zone, which is the band of distance away from a star which could allow for liquid water. As AP explained:

The new planet — named Kepler-22b — has key aspects it shares with Earth. It circles a star that could be the twin of our sun and at just about the same distance. The planet’s year of 290 days is even close to ours. It likely has water and rock.

The only trouble is the planet’s a bit big for life to exist on the surface. The planet is about 2.4 times the size of Earth. It could be more like the gas-and-liquid Neptune with only a rocky core and mostly ocean.

“It’s so exciting to imagine the possibilities,” said Natalie Batalha, the Kepler deputy science chief.

Floating on that “world completely covered in water” could be like being on an Earth ocean and “it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean,” Batalha said in a phone interview.

Kepler can’t find life itself, just where the conditions might be right for it to thrive. And when astronomers look for life elsewhere they’re talking about everything ranging from microbes to advanced intelligence that can be looking back at us.

So far the Kepler telescope has spotted 2,326 candidate planets outside our solar system with 139 of them potentially habitable ones. Even though the confirmed Kepler-22b is a bit big, it is still smaller than most of the other candidates. It is closest to Earth in size, temperature and star than either of the two previously announced planets in the zone.

Excitement over the possible discovery of another planet that could support life prompted satire writer Alexandra Petri what other wonders await us on Kepler 22b:

Two astronomers are staring into a telescope, aimed 600 lightyears away.

“A new planet!” they exclaim. “Blue. Tranquil. Liquid water. Habitable, according to our instruments.”

“And it’ll only take us 22 million years to reach it,” one of them adds.

”Maybe it’s inhabited already,” the first astronomer observes. “The conditions seem proper. On average, the temperature of a beautiful early summer day.”

They sigh. “Maybe things are saner there,” one says. “Maybe they have figured out how to keep a large area of the planetary surface with variegated traditions, languages, and national habits under a single currency.”

“Maybe,” the first one says. “Maybe their presidential primary process is less embarrassing, not overloaded with people named after small reptiles and cooking appliances, and they are not planning a debate hosted by an entertainment mogul who resembles a loaf of bread with some fungus on it.”

“Maybe.” The second astronomer sighs again. “Maybe the aliens on that planet don’t have to spend all their time on social media pretending things are going well and tending imaginary farms.”

“Maybe, over there, blankets with sleeves that let you change the channel without the tiny amount of movement required to pull your limbs out from under the blanket are not a major sector of the economy.”

“Maybe they don’t have that mad rush for holiday sales that results in people being trampled and pepper-sprayed.”

FILM: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasa-new-planet-just-about-right-for-life/2011/12/06/gIQACD44YO_video.html
0 Replies
 
Lj3d
 
  1  
Reply Sat 7 Jan, 2012 02:13 pm
@BumbleBeeBoogie,
One should consider this field of research is still in its infancy and the data for nearly all of the extrasolar planets discovered so far is well...subject to change. I expect once we start imaging these worlds, the data will be refined accordingly. Even then, it will depend on the resolution of the initial images and how much data can be extracted from them.

It would be nice if we could find extrasolar-planets a little closer to us than 600Ly. As things stand right now, we'll be doing well to reach the nearest star (4.35Ly) within the next 500 years. Still, it will be a monumental day if or when an earthlike world can be announced with a high degree of certainty.
0 Replies
 
hater
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jul, 2013 09:59 pm
@BumbleBeeBoogie,
every word said by the original poster is nonsense. we have found no earth like worlds because there are none
0 Replies
 
 

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