NASA found a new Earth-like planet: Kepler-22b

NASA found a new Earth-like planet: Kepler-22b

Mankind has been looking for new home in the space since the day they set foot on moon. The search for other planets having life on them has been conducted by National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) for a long long time. For this purpose, the scientist discovered water patches on Mars, indicating the existence of life. Still, there have been speculations about new life-existing planets.

This search, for Earth-like planets that are circling other stars, has come to new discovery. This latest discovery is the newly announced planet, Kepler-22b, which is believed to be just
right for life having about 72 degrees Fahrenheit temperature, which equalises a perfect spring day on Earth.

According to project scientist, Kepler-22b was spied Kepler space telescope made by NASA and proves to be the best place yet for a life-bearing world beyond our solar system.

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

On the other hand, another Kepler project scientist, Natalie Batalha stated, “It’s right in the middle of the habitable zone. The other exciting thing is that it orbits a star very, very
similar to our own sun.”

Kepler 22b is in Goldilocks zone. According to the scientists, Goldilocks zone is the band of distance away from a star which could allow for liquid water.

The new planet shares some key aspects with Earth. It circles around a star just like the sun at the same distance. The planet’s year, the time it completes one revolution around its star,
is 290 days, which is even close to Earth’s. It likely has water and rock.

The new Kepler-b22 planet is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, which is the only trouble for life to exist on the surface. Because of its size, it could be more like the gas-and-liquid
Neptune with only a rocky core and mostly ocean.

The Kepler telescope has spotted 2,326 candidate planets so far outside our solar system. Only 139 of them are potentially habitable ones. Kepler-22b is a bit big but still it is smaller
than most of the other candidates.

As per its key aspects comparative to Earth like size, temperature and star, it is the closest to Earth than either of the two previously announced planets in the zone.

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Posted by Zeeshan Gohar on Dec 12 2011. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry