Kepler-452b
NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another "Earth."
Source & further reading:
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-kepler-mission-discovers-bigger-older-cousin-to-earth/
#nasa #kepler452b #space
yikes its 1,400 light-years away. we might as well terraform something more local
ReplyDeleteThere areal millions out there. Of course some would be Earth like, and some harbor life.
ReplyDeleteVery exciting
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how long a day lasts there? A year on that planet lasts 285 earth days, but that still doesn't mean a day there is roughly equal to 24 hours. It could spin around it's axis way faster (shorter days) or way slower (longer days).
ReplyDeleteHell, it could even spin so slow that a single day takes longer than a full year.
Another question, is it true that the star around which this planet spins is expanding? Thus the planet, while earth like, has had it's time and is about to be uninhabitable?
I think it is too far away to know its spin orientation and speed. Though when the James Webb Space Telescope is active, we may know more
ReplyDeleteOne has to assume there is a certain amount of imaginative speculation in their assumptions looking at less then a dot that is some 1,400 light years away. But I do admire their tenacity and spirit.
ReplyDeleteTraveling at 65 mph, it would take 14,400,000,000 year to reach that system from Earth, that's longer than the estimated life of the Universe... In other words, we can say whatever we wanted about the Kepler system and would have no consequence in the next couple of thousand years, John Said G. Thomas Edwards
ReplyDeleteNew horizons is traveling at least 15.7 km per second. We can build up speed over time with constant increments in acceleration but still the speed of light is approx 300000 km per second...
ReplyDeleteLooking at our last long distance spaceships, crossing 17 light hours in 40 years, and 4 1/2 light hours in 9 years.
ReplyDeleteIt might take a while...
Adding life support systems would make any travel much longer and harder to sustain.
There must be another way...
Gizmo the Sane agree, to know is not the same as to do. Scientists need to spend resources to improve space transportation.
ReplyDeleteNorman Ma - I just don't see the point of 'to know' in this case. If the target is to prove that there is life, I can assume that already...
ReplyDelete