Astronomers Confirm Another Earth-Like Planet

[Stylo]

So, yeah. Kepler 22-b. It definitely exists and apparently there are even more Earth-like planets out there than previously thought.

Now we can all feel less bad about ruining this planet when we develop more efficient space travel and start migrating. Maybe we'll even force the planet's natives from their land and then celebrate that day many years later.

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.

Then there are the other Earths and "Super-Earths" of course...

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.

Is it me or is this pretty awesome? F**k yeah, Astronomy.

Farticle here courtesy of The Beeb and another Here, courtesy of The Independent.

 

[The Monkey]

Damn, them aliens be short coz of that gravity.

 

[Dandan]

What we need to do is send a micro sized camera at the speed of light towards Alpha Centauri. Then 4 years later we can see what our own neighbors backyard looks like

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Awesome news.

 

[<RJMC>]

I guess the next uber telescope will be aiming there isnt?

 

[Remus]

Good news so far as we now know there are probably plenty of Earth like planets out there. However this one doesn't count as a candidate for the Earth V2.0 colony. It would have what, 3-4 times Earth's gravity?

 

[Bad^Hat]

The total number of Earth-like planets spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 - of which 1,572 have better internet than New Zealand.

 

[JUL3]

**** yes, the future is looking suhweet.

 

[Stylo]

I want to make friends with aleens.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

You're all high.

 

[mechanicallizard]

So when are we invading?

 

[Krynn72]

Kepler 22-b is a sweet name. I wish we had that name. Think they'd switch with us?

 

[Stylo]

Kepler 22-b is a sweet name. I wish we had that name. Think they'd switch with us?

I hear the native intelligent race call it Duhkrrr.

 

[ríomhaire]

Hate to burst the bubble guys but until we know more about it we can't actually say it's habitable. The habitable zone just means that liquid water can exist there. Look at the diagram in the OP. Mars is in the habitable zone but cannot sustain an oxygen atmosphere (the gravity isn't strong enough, oxygen on Mars just floats off into space eventually).

Not only do we not know the chemical composition (we need a rocky planet with lots of water, not a gasy one or a barren one) but we don't know the mass either, only the diameter. If the gravity is too large there it can't sustain an atmosphere long-term (much like what I said about Mars) and if it's too high we'd just be crushed.


This is cool news though and the more planets we can find the faster we can find one that's "just right".

 

[99.vikram]

It's worth pointing out that NASA is working on a new telescope due in 2018, called the James Webb Space Telescope. It will have 100x the sensitivity of Hubble. Also SpaceX and Richard Branson and a whole bunch of other guys are going to make LEO and lunar spaceflight affordable within a couple of decades.

Life is sweet!

Of course, it will probably be our robot successors who will land on Kepler 22b on account of us humans losing the Great War.

 

[Escaep]

Hate to burst the bubble guys but until we know more about it we can't actually say it's habitable. The habitable zone just means that liquid water can exist there. Look at the diagram in the OP. Mars is in the habitable zone but cannot sustain an oxygen atmosphere (the gravity isn't strong enough, oxygen on Mars just floats off into space eventually).

Not only do we not know the chemical composition (we need a rocky planet with lots of water, not a gasy one or a barren one) but we don't know the mass either, only the diameter. If the gravity is too large there it can't sustain an atmosphere long-term (much like what I said about Mars) and if it's too high we'd just be crushed.


This is cool news though and the more planets we can find the faster we can find one that's "just right".

 

[Stigmata]

On the other hand, these "conditions for life" are really nothing more than "conditions for the kind of life that supports human existence". One thing that often goes unmentioned is the effect that pressure and temperature have on chemical properties. Concepts like "water is a condensating liquid" are dependent on these - if our atmospheric pressure were a third (ed. note: some very small amount) of what it is now, water would boil away at room temperature, and most lifeforms would deconstitute. If I can dig it up, I read a while back that within a certain range of pressures and temperatures, methane has properties similar to water on Earth. So.... keep believing :V

 

[Stylo]

Another article posted on it a few days ago if you're interested. More "There could be life" talk.

It's not a massive amount of expansion on the Beeb article but it's The Independent so I thought I'd tack it up here for those who
fancy a goosey at it.

Article Herez

 

[Mogi67]

this planet should be called herpth. or derpth.

 

[Stylo]

I'm less focused on the whole "OMGALIENS" thing and more on the "Hey, if mankind isn't obliterated anytime soon, these are planets we could expand to in the future" thing.

Not that finding life on other planets wouldn't be awesome of course. Even if it's just microbes and bacteria.

 

[Yorick]

I'm less focused on the whole "OMGALIENS" thing and more on the "Hey, if mankind isn't obliterated anytime soon, these are planets we could expand to in the future" thing.

We're a long way from being able to do that, sadly.

Not that finding life on other planets wouldn't be awesome of course. Even if it's just microbes and bacteria.

I think it's pretty much guaranteed at this point that we'll at least find something out there. And knowing us we'll probably end up ****ing killing it.

 

[YROC]

**** that shade of blue.

 

[Wanted Bob]

I think it's pretty much guaranteed at this point that we'll at least find something out there. And knowing us we'll probably end up ****ing killing it.

Heh, the only way I see us not doing that is if it's far enough away that we never come into physical contact with it.

 

[Stylo]

We're a long way from being able to do that, sadly.

Well, not with that attitude!

But no, seriously, by future I meant extremely distant future.

 

[Shem]

I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.

 

[Viperidae]

I think it's pretty much guaranteed at this point that we'll at least find something out there. And knowing us we'll probably end up ****ing killing it.

Or turning it into a fetish and ****ing it.