A possible Earth twin has been confirmed orbiting a sunlike star 600 light-years away—and the new planet may be in just the right spot for supporting life, NASA announced Monday.
Discovered by the Kepler space mission, the new planet—dubbed Kepler-22b—is the first world smaller than Neptune to be found in middle of its star’s habitable zone.
Also called the Goldilocks zone, the habitable zone is the region around a star where a planet’s surface is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water—and thus life as we know it—to exist.
The new planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth, but scientists don’t yet know its composition, because they are still missing a crucial piece of information: Kepler-22b’s mass.
The Kepler team is hopeful, however, that the mass of Kepler-22b could be calculated with the help of a new ground-based instrument in the Spanish Canary Islands that will begin observations next spring.
Called HARPS North, the new telescope is capable of measuring with high precision a planet’s doppler velocity—changes in the frequency of light from an object in space as it moves toward or away from Earth.
With this information, scientists can calculate the mass, and therefore the density, of Kepler-22b and determine whether it’s a rocky planet or a water world.
“We are really hopeful that HARPS North might be able to be a really big help in this quest for the mass of this planet,” San Jose State’s Batalha said.
“We’re just getting closer and closer to what is truly Earthlike, and that progress is exciting to watch.”
I fail to understand it why so much fascination with it. It is 6 million light years away , we will never be able to find out if it still exits or it is a poof now.
There is life on this planet which is crying for help and nobody listens to those cries. Pay attention to your dying planet and its folks people.
I fail to understand it why so much fascination with it. It is 6 million light years away , we will never be able to find out if it still exits or it is a poof now.
There is life on this planet which is crying for help and nobody listens to those cries. Pay attention to your dying planet and its folks people.
Its 600, not 6 million light years away ...
I am totally excited about this discovery. If we find intelligent life there, that is going to change everything we know about life. It will shake both the evolution vs creation school of thoughts. Because its only 600 light years away, I am sure that within next couple of decades (maybe in lesser time) we should be able to confirm the presence/absence of intelligent life form
I am totally excited about this discovery. If we find intelligent life there, that is going to change everything we know about life. It will shake both the evolution vs creation school of thoughts. Because its only 600 light years away, I am sure that within next couple of decades (maybe in lesser time) we should be able to confirm the presence/absence of intelligent life form
for some planet 600 light years away it is not so easy to find life. They are having hard time finding life on Mars which is not so far off.
It will not shake creation school of thought. They do not claim that life came into being on this planet by chance. Allah who created life on this planet is capable of creating life anywhere and everywhere Allah(SWT) wants . Allah hu kullay shaun qadeer.
for some planet 600 light years away it is not so easy to find life. They are having hard time finding life on Mars which is not so far off.
It will not shake creation school of thought. They do not claim that life came into being on this planet by chance. Allah who created life on this planet is capable of creating life anywhere and everywhere Allah(SWT) wants . Allah hu kullay shaun qadeer.
Finding sign of life vs Sign of intelligent life are two diff things. I am talking about finding sign of intelligent life. Radio signals, lack of or presence of green house gases and many other factors could point towards a possibility of intelligent life.
Now about the religious school of thought, I was more referring towards creation of Adam as first human and Shaitan refusing to bow. That means that life can be found elsewhere but earth would have sepcial place as the first human was created here. Now if we find out that planet is older than earth and somehow figure out that life started millions of years before it started on earth, that could change the way we think of the theory of creation.
Yeah right , that is imaginary rendition . Here is how they are speculating that there is a planet out there. By dips in brightness not by actually looking at it.
Yeah right , that is imaginary rendition . Here is how they are speculating that there is a planet out there. By dips in brightness not by actually looking at it.
ghor se dekho tou you can find Queen scratching her head in that artist rendering
I am totally excited about this discovery. If we find intelligent life there, that is going to change everything we know about life. It will shake both the evolution vs creation school of thoughts. Because its only 600 light years away, I am sure that within next couple of decades (maybe in lesser time) we should be able to confirm the presence/absence of intelligent life form
600 light years mean if you travel by the speed of light (which is impossible), it will take you 600 years to reach the planet.
600 light years mean if you travel by the speed of light (which is impossible), it will take you 600 years to reach the planet.
So humans can never reach there.
that is why I said "I am talking about finding sign of intelligent life. Radio signals, lack of or presence of green house gases and many other factors could point towards a possibility of intelligent life." That means finding signs of intelligent life through indirect methods and observation from earth and not through sending a probe there.
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