2013 Earths Twin Found

In the last couple of years, every week we seem to hear of one or other scientists discovering a new planet.

These planets are usually too close to their star or too far for them to have life forms as we know them. However there have been exceptions when a newly discovered planet seems to be within its stars “habitable zone”, that is to say that the planet is situated in an orbit that would give it a temperature range, on its surface, equivalent to Earths. None of those possible planets though are similar in size to Earth, therefore cannot be classed as true Earth twins.

According to some top scientists, this could change in 2013.

The Kepler Space Telescope is responsible for many of the planets found to date. So far it has flagged some 2,300 potential planets. These though are subject to verification. So far 100 have been verified but it is expected that 80% will receive verification in the near future.

HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), of the European Southern Observatory, has also been responsible for finding planets.

Researchers believe that there is Earth like planets within our Milky Way Galaxy. They estimate that the galaxy contains some 200 billion stars and at least 50 billion planets.

Assuming that 1:10,000 are similar to Earth, which would mean that there are a possible 5,000,000 Earth like planets in our own galaxy.

Two prominent scientists in the search for planets are Abel Mendez who runs Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico and Geoff Marcy a veteran planet hunter at the University of California, Berkley.

Both these scientists agree that with the experience they have gained over the last couple of years and the enhanced capabilities they have learnt with which to operate these two sets of equipment, they believe that Earths Twin will be found in 2013.

They hope and believe that this discovery will be of major significance and could result in the separate national space agencies to work together in an effort to learn more about our twin planet.

It is thought that the space agencies may come together to try and send a probe to examine the new planet.

This of course begs the question: will they have to seek new technologies to fuel the probe?

I doubt that. Some believe that the technology is already known and is just waiting for a suitable way to introduce it.

Perhaps 2013 will not only reveal Earths Twin but also a new way of life for those occupying this one.