Kepler-186f - Earth MkII ?

Kepler-186f - Earth MkII ?

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FourWheelDrift

Original Poster:

88,381 posts

283 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/april/nasas-kepler-...


NASA said:
NASA's Kepler Telescope Discovers First Earth-Size Planet in 'Habitable Zone'

Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.

While planets have previously been found in the habitable zone, they are all at least 40 percent larger in size than Earth and understanding their makeup is challenging. Kepler-186f is more reminiscent of Earth.

"The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind's quest to find truly Earth-like worlds."

Although the size of Kepler-186f is known, its mass and composition are not. Previous research, however, suggests that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is likely to be rocky.

"We know of just one planet where life exists -- Earth. When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth," said Elisa Quintana, research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published today in the journal Science. "Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward."

Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system, about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The system is also home to four companion planets, which orbit a star half the size and mass of our sun. The star is classified as an M dwarf, or red dwarf, a class of stars that makes up 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

"M dwarfs are the most numerous stars," said Quintana. "The first signs of other life in the galaxy may well come from planets orbiting an M dwarf."

Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130-days and receives one-third the energy from its star that Earth gets from the sun, placing it nearer the outer edge of the habitable zone. On the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon is only as bright as our sun appears to us about an hour before sunset.

"Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has," said Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames, and co-author of the paper. "Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth."

The four companion planets, Kepler-186b, Kepler-186c, Kepler-186d, and Kepler-186e, whiz around their sun every four, seven, 13, and 22 days, respectively, making them too hot for life as we know it. These four inner planets all measure less than 1.5 times the size of Earth.

The next steps in the search for distant life include looking for true Earth-twins -- Earth-size planets orbiting within the habitable zone of a sun-like star -- and measuring the their chemical compositions. The Kepler Space Telescope, which simultaneously and continuously measured the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, is NASA's first mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets around stars like our sun.
sign me up for relocation, too many morons on this one now.

Simpo Two

85,149 posts

264 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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500 light years away - you'd better start now...

FourWheelDrift

Original Poster:

88,381 posts

283 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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I'll wait till after the weekend, Easter holiday traffic can be pretty bad.

Terminator X

14,921 posts

203 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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How will they (ever) know if it has water on it?

TX.

FourWheelDrift

Original Poster:

88,381 posts

283 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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Terminator X said:
How will they (ever) know if it has water on it?

TX.
Atmospheric water signatures maybe - http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-traces-...

If there's water in the atmosphere, I guess there's likely to be water on the planet.

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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There are various techniques that can be used to assess what gases might be in the atmosphere of an exo-planet.

valiant

10,068 posts

159 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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More importantly, what are house prices like? Would building a few BTLs be a good investment? Prices are only headed one way after all!

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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As it's 500 light years away, getting a quick response from the coneyancing solicitor might be even slower than it can be in in Greater London.

Butter Face

30,192 posts

159 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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valiant said:
More importantly, what are house prices like? Would building a few BTLs be a good investment? Prices are only headed one way after all!
I've heard the members of the Kepler planning board are an absolute nightmare.

FourWheelDrift

Original Poster:

88,381 posts

283 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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I'm not going now, it doesn't sound like the new place to be seen as I've read some reviews that say it's got absolutely no atmosphere.

PD9

1,996 posts

184 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
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Fill up the tank; it's only 2,939,249,910,000,000 miles away.

crazy about cars

4,454 posts

168 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
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Distance is only relative...

Matt UK

17,649 posts

199 months

Monday 12th May 2014
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PD9 said:
Fill up the tank; it's only 2,939,249,910,000,000 miles away.
I'll start a 'what car' thread in GG