kublikhan
Joined: 11 Jul 2003
Posts: 2849
Location: Schaumburg, IL |
First potentially habitable Earth-sized planet found
quote:
Originally posted by article
The first Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of another star has been confirmed by observations with both the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Gemini Observatory. It also confirms that Earth-sized planets do exist in the habitable zone of other stars.
"What makes this finding particularly compelling is that this Earth-sized planet, one of five orbiting this star, which is cooler than the Sun, resides in a temperate region where water could exist in liquid form." The region in which this planet orbits its star is called the habitable zone, as it is thought that life would most likely form on planets with liquid water. "These Earth-sized planets are extremely hard to detect and confirm, and now that we've found one, we want to search for more."
The host star, Kepler-186, is an M1-type dwarf star relatively close to our solar system, at about 500 light years and is in the constellation of Cygnus. The star is very dim, being over half a million times fainter than the faintest stars we can see with the naked eye. Five small planets have been found orbiting this star, four of which are in very short-period orbits and are very hot. The planet designated Kepler-186f, however, is earth-sized and orbits within the star's habitable zone.
The artistic concept of Kepler-186f is the result of scientists and artists collaborating to help imagine the appearance of these distant worlds. Credit: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-CalTech.
FIRST POTENTIALLY HABITABLE EARTH-SIZED PLANET CONFIRMED
_________________ Give me a lever long enough and I shall move the world. - Archimedes
|