A 'habitable' earth-like planet, which is orbiting around a sun-like star 600 light years away, has been discovered in our galaxy for the first time, researchers say.
A team of researchers from NASA's Kepler Mission has discovered what could be a large, rocky planet with a surface temperature of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit, comparable to a comfortable spring day on earth.
The discovery team, led by William Borucki of the NASA Ames Research Centre, used photometric data from the NASA Kepler space telescope, which monitors the brightness of 155,000 stars.
Earth-size planets whose orbital planes are aligned such that they periodically pass in front of their stars result in tiny dimmings of their host star's light dimmings that can only be measured by a highly specialized space telescope like Kepler.
The host star lies about 600 light-years away from us toward the constellations of Lyra and Cygnus.
The star, a G5 star, has a mass and a radius only slightly smaller than that of our sun, a G2 star. As a result, the host star is about 25 per cent less luminous than the sun.
There is no proof as of yet that this planet is habitable. It just happens to be in the zone from it's sun that is considered potentially habitable. No one knows yet if this planet has any water or any sort of atmosphere.
To give you an example, both Mars and Venus are in the distance zone from our Sun that is considered to potentially habitable, but neither of those planets could support life as we know it.
Even if it does not work out to be habitable; it would make a good catch phrase when someone is being a source of irritation to think or say "OK,let's send them to second earth!"
by Danette Watt 7 years ago
Do you think there could be life on any of the 7 new planets NASA discovered?What do you imagine that life form would/could look like?
by Alem Belton 15 months ago
I'm pretty sure this is a story in the bible, Noah's Arc or something? Anyway I want to know if this is even scientifically possible.
by Credence2 16 months ago
The last men had set foot on its surface during the early 1970s. It is time to return to do great science and get a base constructed at the lunar South Pole.
by Erick Adrian 6 years ago
Sun is a star or planet ?
by pinappu 10 years ago
Aliens like us | Do you believe that there are aliens like us, humans ?The Universe is so, so huge that it is impossible to know every corner about it. Our Galaxy Milky Way is also a very, very big place. Is it possible to have alien creatures like us exist somewhere in this galaxy or even outside...
by ptosis 12 years ago
Has the Harkonnen planet of Giedi Prime been discovered?An alien world blacker than coal, the darkest planet known, has been discovered in the galaxy with no explaination as to why the world is as stealthily cloaked as it is. Called TrES-2b, sounds like the evil planet from the movie...
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