Kepler 22-b: Earth-like planet confirmed

[redmanjp]

I feel it's only a matter of time folks b4 we get a major announcement (aliens)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655

5 December 2011 Last updated at 17:50 GMT

Kepler 22-b: Earth-like planet confirmed

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.

It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".

However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.

During the conference at which the result was announced, the Kepler team said that it had spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets.

The Kepler space telescope was designed to look at a fixed swathe of the night sky, staring intently at about 150,000 stars. The telescope is sensitive enough to see when a planet passes in front of its host star, dimming the star's light by a minuscule amount.

Kepler identifies these slight changes in starlight as candidate planets, which are then confirmed by further observations by Kepler and other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.

Kepler 22-b was one of 54 candidates reported by the Kepler team in February, and is just the first to be formally confirmed using other telescopes.

More of these "Earth 2.0" candidates are likely to be confirmed in the near future, though a redefinition of the habitable zone's boundaries has brought that number down to 48.

Kepler 22-b lies at a distance from its sun about 15% less than the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. However, its sun puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at its balmy temperature that would support the existence of liquid water.

The Kepler team had to wait for three passes of the planet before upping its status from "candidate" to "confirmed".

"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at Nasa's Ames Research Center.

"The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season."

The results were announced at the Kepler telescope's first science conference, alongside the staggering number of new candidate planets. The total number of candidates spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 - of which 207 are approximately Earth-sized.

In total, the results suggest that planets ranging from Earth-sized to about four times Earth's size - so-called "super-Earths" - may be more common than previously thought.

[K74T]

Party over there was bess last nite

[DevilZ]

ah wonder wha kinda grade dem have growin over there

[sliderz1]

good post OP!

[redmanjp]

it's time to position every radio telescope on that planet to see if we picking up any signal from them- who knows- 'they' might be wondering if we exist

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth

the inhabitants are probably 2.4 times our size too

if the planet is dense like earth then they'd probably be able to fly in our gravity just by jumping - if they came here.

and I'm pretty sure if they have the ability to visit us, we'd be the "amerindians"...

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

oh and just to add.. when we look at their planet with telescopes now, what we are seeing is their planet as is was 600 years ago. 600 years ago we were floating around in wooden sail ships thinking the earth was flat.

[lostallos101]

true true.....but look at the size of it compared to our earth....they will laugh at us....we would def be the Amerindians no lie

[mars]

"Allah Ta'ala divided mankind into ten parts. Nine tenths constitute Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj while the remaining tenths constitutues the rest of mankind."


"In My Father's House there are many mansions."

[X2]

I say we go there and start some shiFt...

[Apollo Trinidad]

good stuff OP

[~Vēġó~]

600 light years away? dais like right dey!! very cool!

[trinidadmotorcycles]

We should know within a few months of the chemical make of the planet when spectrograph data is reviewed, only then can they say its a Earth 2.0..

Defo one to watch and 600 lightyears in Universal terms is next door.. If this does end up being a rocky planet with the right chemical make up in the atmosphere then im happy to take a punt and say yep life "should exist" on it...

Theres still a lot of chatter in the astronomy world that NASA has confirmed that the Mars phoenix lander has found micro life in the sheet ice just under the surface of the planet, and that they are waiting for a politically correct time to announce it to the world... The discovery of this planet could just hurry them up as I feel the general population of the world is ready to be told that other life does exist...

Just so I dont get a B.S regarding the ice here is a pic from the wheel tracks of the lander..

[Mark!]

these things always grasp my attention, but its always a disappointment when you realize that no voyages or expeditions to these place would happen in my lifetime

[trinidadmotorcycles]

But just knowing forsure that we are not alone has to be big enough considering only a few hundred years ago we was still having to ride horses to the shops..

My biggest question regarding stuff like this is what happens to religion???? I mean in Europe its against the law to give evidence that goes against the church even if it is scientific proof

We have gone from "thinking" we was the centre of the universe....To then thinking we was the centre of our galaxy.. To the thinking we was the centre of our solar system.. Its starting to look like we are a self righteous species that in the grand view doesnt really matter....

[kes_vtec]

god not say that was NOT life any where else... but he did make "man" here on earth...

"evidence that goes against the church even if it is scientific proof" fixed... lol

[silent_riot]

I hope its inhabited by a superior species.
Humanity needs to learn humility.

[crazybalhead]

[zoom rader]

I hope its inhabited by a superior species.
Humanity needs to learn humility.

Sorry dude the PNM has all rights to this planet

[X2]

Men are from mars, women are from kepler 22-b ?

[sliderz1]

oh and just to add.. when we look at their planet with telescopes now, what we are seeing is their planet as is was 600 years ago.

and thats the interesting part!

these things always grasp my attention, but its always a disappointment when you realize that no voyages or expeditions to these place would happen in my lifetime

i know eh

[MadCrix]

nice... hopefully the day will come soon when we can actaulyl travel across that time in a couple months ect

[sharkman121]

My biggest question regarding stuff like this is what happens to religion???? I mean in Europe its against the law to give evidence that goes against the church even if it is scientific proof

really?, can anyone confirm this?

[MG Man]

the real question should really be do they have VTEC?

[Strauss]

oh and just to add.. when we look at their planet with telescopes now, what we are seeing is their planet as is was 600 years ago. 600 years ago we were floating around in wooden sail ships thinking the earth was flat.

+1

Where's my post "Like" button?

[Strauss]

the real question should really be do they have VTEC?

If they are really more advanced than us by now, they'd probably have VVT-Li, and laughing at our VTEC.

[st7]

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth

the inhabitants are probably 2.4 times our size too

if the planet is dense like earth then they'd probably be able to fly in our gravity just by jumping - if they came here.

i dont see what the size of the planet has to do with size of inhabitants. also wont kepler's density have to be greater for them to achieve 'fly in our gravity' status on earth? lol

[DSM_05]

i dont see what the size of the planet has to do with size of inhabitants.

If anything, I'd have thought that organisms would be smaller, due to the larger overall effects of gravity (assuming the same density of the planet as earth).

[trinidadmotorcycles]

[quote="trinidadmotorcycles"

My biggest question regarding stuff like this is what happens to religion???? I mean in Europe its against the law to give evidence that goes against the church even if it is scientific proof

really?, can anyone confirm this?[/quote]

Sharkman this was what I could find with limited time at work regarding ref..


Ok found a few bits regarding the info there was a two page article regarding it that I read a few years ago.. I cannot find it now but hey im sure it there if you look...

I have however found out that the name of the Law in the UK was changed in 2008 and now goes under a different name, but the outline of the law that stood for years was,

Going against any Christian faith is deemed to be "blasphemous libel" in common law in Europe.. That means that you cannot say anything that will/may upset a Christian regardless of what the proof is..

[sMASH]

We should know within a few months of the chemical make of the planet when spectrograph data is reviewed, only then can they say its a Earth 2.0..

Defo one to watch and 600 lightyears in Universal terms is next door.. If this does end up being a rocky planet with the right chemical make up in the atmosphere then im happy to take a punt and say yep life "should exist" on it...

all that great an'ol


but what!!!!!

Theres still a lot of chatter in the astronomy world that NASA has confirmed that the Mars phoenix lander has found micro life in the sheet ice just under the surface of the planet, and that they are waiting for a politically correct time to announce it to the world... The discovery of this planet could just hurry them up as I feel the general population of the world is ready to be told that other life does exist...

Just so I dont get a B.S regarding the ice here is a pic from the wheel tracks of the lander..