NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone

By webeagle12
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Grand Master

webeagle12

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NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone ? that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist ? and found more than 1,000 new explanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5).

The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation.These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700.

The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own ? one which could conceivably harbor life, scientists said.

"We're getting closer and closer to discovering the so-called 'Goldilocks planet,'" Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said during a press conference today. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

The newfound planet in the habitable zone is called Kepler-22b. It is located about 600 light-years away, orbiting a sun-like star.

Kepler-22b's radius is 2.4 times that of Earth, and the two planets have roughly similar temperatures. If the greenhouse effect operates there similarly to how it does on Earth, the average surface temperature on Kepler-22b would be 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius).

Hunting down alien planets

The $600 million Kepler observatory launched in March 2009 to hunt for Earth-size alien planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, might be able to exist.

Kepler detects alien planets using what's called the "transit method." It searches for tiny, telltale dips in a star's brightness caused when a planet transits ? or crosses in front of ? the star from Earth's perspective, blocking a fraction of the star's light.

The finds graduate from "candidates" to full-fledged planets after follow-up observations confirm that they're not false alarms. This process, which is usually done with large, ground-based telescopes, can take about a year.

The Kepler team released data from its first 13 months of operation back in February, announcing that the instrument had detected 1,235 planet candidates, including 54 in the habitable zone and 68 that are roughly Earth-size.

Of the total 2,326 candidate planets that Kepler has found to date, 207 are approximately Earth-size. More of them, 680, are a bit larger than our planet, falling into the "super-Earth" category. The total number of candidate planets in the habitable zones of their stars is now 48.

To date, just over two dozen of these potential exoplanets have been confirmed, but Kepler scientists have estimated that at least 80 percent of the instrument's discoveries should end up being the real deal.

More discoveries to come

The newfound 1,094 planet candidates are the fruit of Kepler's labors during its first 16 months of science work, from May 2009 to September 2010. And they won't be the last of the prolific instrument's discoveries.

"This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.

Mission scientists still need to analyze data from the last two years and on into the future. Kepler will be making observations for a while yet to come; its nominal mission is set to end in November 2012, but the Kepler team is preparing a proposal to extend the instrument's operations for another year or more.

Kepler's finds should only get more exciting as time goes on, researchers say.

"We're pushing down to smaller planets and longer orbital periods," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at Ames.

To flag a potential planet, the instrument generally needs to witness three transits. Planets that make three transits in just a few months must be pretty close to their parent stars; as a result, many of the alien worlds Kepler spotted early on have been blisteringly hot places that aren't great candidates for harboring life as we know it.

Given more time, however, a wealth of more distantly orbiting ? and perhaps more Earth-like ? exoplanets should open up to Kepler. If intelligent aliens were studying our solar system with their own version of Kepler, after all, it would take them three years to detect our home planet.

"We are getting very close," Batalha said. "We are homing in on the truly Earth-size, habitable planets."

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-telescope-confirms-alien-planet-habitable-zone-162005358.html

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Dusco25

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I got 2 aliens in my basement right now.. I am trying to mate them with my wife so we can get "w00ty" BF3 players.. Cause as you can tell by my rank I either never play or have a job..

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zeta_immersion

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I got 2 aliens in my basement right now.. I am trying to mate them with my wife so we can get "w00ty" BF3 players.. Cause as you can tell by my rank I either never play or have a job..

actually ... my aliens would give away secrets only when I mate with the 2 females .... it seems on their planet, the males have lost the ability to have sex, so .... with my consent (of course) ... I mated with them. Now, I am working on my stargate (because that is what they use) to get to their planet. I also have the plans for a space craft but will wait for the right time to sell them. In the mean time, they call me and I have taken upon myself (the wife dono about it) to give them all they want ---- the only sustanance is a teaspon a day so it WORKS!!! ...

stargate complete ... adios amigos .... hello sexy aliens

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neoadorable

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this is a great find by Kepler and awesome news. sadly this place is like 600 light years away, so it'll be a long long time before humans are able to go out there unless we figure out FTL movement. at any rate, we all knew worlds like this existed before, but added confirmation is nice.

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c.grz

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Doesn't say much really... Both Venus and Mars are in the habitable zone of our sun as well and we all know what great places to live they are.

Have you ever been to Venus or Mars? It may look a little rough but I bet they make for some great camping!!!!!

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MidnightDevil

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Have you ever been to Venus or Mars? It may look a little rough but I bet they make for some great camping!!!!!

Just have to make sure to take extra supplies of water.

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Tom

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16044761

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like world orbiting a star like our Sun in its "habitable zone".

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.

Nadine Dukeson reports.

Source for video.

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Pam14160

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Just have to make sure to take extra supplies of water.

, and make sure when going to Venus you take extra sun block. . . :woot:

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cybertimber2008

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Doesn't say much really... Both Venus and Mars are in the habitable zone of our sun as well and we all know what great places to live they are.

Well they key part there is two parts: 1) greenhouse effect, as the article said, if the greenhouse effect works similarly to Earth, that would affect the planet. This applies to Mars... no greenhouse effect to keep the heat in. 2) Atmosphere composition. Venus is very acidic (acid rain issues), hence that's why Venus is unlivable. Well, that and the greenhouse effect there is in high gear keeping temps up.
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.Neo

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Well they key part there is two parts: 1) greenhouse effect, as the article said, if the greenhouse effect works similarly to Earth, that would affect the planet. This applies to Mars... no greenhouse effect to keep the heat in. 2) Atmosphere composition. Venus is very acidic (acid rain issues), hence that's why Venus is unlivable. Well, that and the greenhouse effect there is in high gear keeping temps up.

Yes, hence why I said the planet being in the habitable zone alone doesn't say much.

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