Dot Matrix Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 MOFFET FIELD, Calif. -- NASA's Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun. The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87 times the radius of Earth. Kepler-20f is a bit larger than Earth, measuring 1.03 times its radius. Both planets reside in a five-planet system called Kepler-20, approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. Kepler-20e orbits its parent star every 6.1 days and Kepler-20f every 19.6 days. These short orbital periods mean very hot, inhospitable worlds. Kepler-20f, at 800 degrees Fahrenheit, is similar to an average day on the planet Mercury. The surface temperature of Kepler-20e, at more than 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, would melt glass. Ladies and gents, this is huge. :punk: Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/...-20-system.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reacon Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 You're right, those temperatures are HUGE! I fail to see how this is exciting considering there is little prospect for life on them, and even less prospect for human colonization. Glassed Silver 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
44MLX Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 I believe that there is other life than just us, humans. But who will be the first to communicate with eachother? That's the big question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dot Matrix Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 I fail to see how this is exciting considering there is little prospect for life on them, and even less prospect for human colonization. This discovery confirms two things: 1: The Kepler Telescope was built to find Earth-sized words. So we now know it can. 2: This is a huge discovery, as these are the first two Earth sized worlds discovered. Previous discoveries have been "super-Earths" or Jupiter-like gas giants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glassed Silver Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 You're right, those temperatures are HUGE! I fail to see how this is exciting considering there is little prospect for life on them, and even less prospect for human colonization. This... Not wanting to look like a troll, but I yawn and move on... :/ Or did I miss something? :s Glassed Silver:mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reacon Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 This discovery confirms two things: 1: The Kepler Telescope was built to find Earth-sized words. So we now know it can. 2: This is a huge discovery, as these are the first two Earth sized worlds discovered. Previous discoveries have been "super-Earths" or Jupiter-like gas giants. Well, good point. Although call me back when we can say "earth-sized rocky world discovered in habitable zone of a star close to Sol". :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shockz Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 This discovery confirms two things: 1: The Kepler Telescope was built to find Earth-sized words. So we now know it can. 2: This is a huge discovery, as these are the first two Earth sized worlds discovered. Previous discoveries have been "super-Earths" or Jupiter-like gas giants. Didn't they discover an earth like planet with water and an estimated temp of 72F a few weeks ago in a habitable zone of a solar system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 We would have to be naive to assume that because WE can't live or survive in 800 degree worlds that something or someone else couldn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dot Matrix Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 Didn't they discover an earth like planet with water and an estimated temp of 72F a few weeks ago in a life zone of a solar system? No. They discovered a planet in the habitable zone. But I don't think anyone knows much more about it, other than the fact that it exists. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2011/12/kepler20_planets.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick H. Supervisor Posted December 20, 2011 Supervisor Share Posted December 20, 2011 They're fair points, and I do realise that it's a big discovery. But I'm still waiting for the mother-load, as it were: Earth V.2. Now that will be huge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 http://www.floridato...et-s-72-degrees This undated handout artist rendering provided by NASA shows Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star's habitable zone -- the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. NASA has found the new planet outside our solar system that's eerily similar to Earth in key aspects. Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a comfy 72 degrees. Its star could almost be a twin of our sun. It likely has water and land.Astronomers have reported the discovery of an Earth-like planet outside the solar system whose size and distance from its own star put it in the ?habitable? zone and make for a surface temperature perhaps averaging a balmy 72 degrees. The planet, Kepler 22b, about 2.4 times wider than Earth, circles a star about 600 light years away, close by astronomical standards. The Kepler space telescope discovery team announced the find at a briefing at NASA?s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. ?It is right smack in the middle of the habitable zone,? Kepler scientist Natalie Batalha says. Launched in 2009, the $591 million Kepler space telescope has detected more than 2,000 possible planets observed among about 150,000 stars within 3,000 light years of Earth along the ?Orion spur? of our Milky Way galaxy. Kepler 22b?s discovery caps a half-decade of astronomers searching for a ?Goldilocks? planet -- not too hot or not too cold to harbor oceans on its surface, like Earth. Liquid water is considered key for development of life. ?This is a phenomenal discovery in the course of human history,? says planet hunting pioneer Geoff Marcy of the University of California-Berkeley, a Kepler investigator. European astronomers discovered the first planet confirmed orbiting a nearby star in 1995, spurring a gold rush of planet discoveries, mostly jumbo planets the size of Jupiter or larger. Kepler 22b ?is the smallest, most nearly Earth-size, planet ever found in the lukewarm zone around another sun where life could thrive.? Kepler spotted the planet from tiny dips in starlight caused by partial eclipses, or transits, of the planet in front of the star. It travels on a 290-day orbit around a sun-like star, dubbed Kepler 22a, nearly as bright and warm as our own. Astronomer Francesco Pepe of Switzerland?s University of Geneva, says he is ?convinced that the report will be solid and the data impressive? from the Kepler 22b discovery. Pepe is a member of a competing European Southern Observatory planet-hunting team that announced an Earth-sized planet on the edge of another star?s habitable zone in September. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dot Matrix Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 They're fair points, and I do realise that it's a big discovery. But I'm still waiting for the mother-load, as it were: Earth V.2. Now that will be huge. I'm willing to bet money, that'll be coming in the next year or two. Exciting times we live in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brink668 Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 You're right, those temperatures are HUGE! I fail to see how this is exciting considering there is little prospect for life on them, and even less prospect for human colonization. How would you know that? You have no idea, no one has a clue. I bet you there is life somewhere on every planet. It may be mad small but there is something there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azusa Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I fail to see how this is exciting considering there is little prospect for life on them, and even less prospect for human colonization. They're probably saying the same thing about us. TCA 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJohnSmitherson Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Maybe there is life on those planets that withstand that temperature! :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
remixedcat Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 nah just put a few air-con units and you're set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinggus Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I believe that there is other life than just us, humans. But who will be the first to communicate with eachother? That's the big question. 1,000 light years is extremely far away. But, I must say if there is any life out there, I hope I get to see it in my life time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudslag Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I believe that there is other life than just us, humans. But who will be the first to communicate with eachother? That's the big question. The millions of other life forms here on earth that arent human are feeling a bit left out about now... :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obi-Wan Kenobi Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 so not cool! (lame pun intentional, reader discretion is advised) :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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