Saturday, April 20, 2013

Earth-Like Planets Discovered

Scientists have long been in the hunt for planets resembling the Earth in hopes of finding environment conducive to life. However, while there have been leads in the past, they have mostly been nothing more than false hopes. Curiosity, NASA’s rover’s latest mission to Mars proved that the Red planet did in the past hold water and could also have held life forms. However, whether the planet will sustain life in the future is still unknown. Another mission into outer space, that of Kepler, has provided some interesting insights into galaxies around the Milky Way and their ability to sustain life. Kepler has managed to narrow down on three planets that come closest to being described as sisters of the Earth. The three planets are neither too close nor too far from their parent star. The distance from the parent star often determines the temperature of the planet, a pre-requisite factor conducive to life on the planet. Comment facebook twitter google email Your Reactions? 5 FAIL 7 WOW 0 OMG 2 GEEKY 1 LOL Earth-Like Planets Discovered by Rutu Ladage , IndiaTimes | April 20, 2013, 5:00 pm IST - Posted 59 mins ago Science wow « Go Back to Homepage Kepler-69c planet which is a part of the Kepler-69 system. Image Courtesy: NASAKepler 69 system Scientists have long been in the hunt for planets resembling the Earth in hopes of finding environment conducive to life. However, while there have been leads in the past, they have mostly been nothing more than false hopes. Curiosity, NASA’s rover’s latest mission to Mars proved that the Red planet did in the past hold water and could also have held life forms. However, whether the planet will sustain life in the future is still unknown. Another mission into outer space, that of Kepler, has provided some interesting insights into galaxies around the Milky Way and their ability to sustain life. Kepler has managed to narrow down on three planets that come closest to being described as sisters of the Earth. The three planets are neither too close nor too far from their parent star. The distance from the parent star often determines the temperature of the planet, a pre-requisite factor conducive to life on the planet. Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f form part of the Kepler-62 system. Image Courtesy: NASAKepler 62 New Anthropocene Journal elementascience.org - www.elementascience.org Nonprofit, open-access, scientific Ads by Google Also, the three planets are just slightly larger than the Earth. Their exact mass is still unknown but their distance from the main star or the “sun” of their galaxy hints at the two main essentials for life being present of these planet. The first is water while the second is a strong, rocky surface. There have been many planets in the past to have a strong surface but the absence of water ruled out possibility of life. The three planets discovered are Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f and Kepler-69-c. Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f both orbit the parent star Kepler-62. A Kepler-62e year is 122 days while the Kepler-62f year is longer at approximately 267 days. While the first is almost 60 percent bigger to Earth, the latter is 40 percent larger. Kepler-69c has a year of 242 days. The Kepler-62e is the most conduccie to life forms as the planet is expected to hold a mix of rocky land and water or majority of oceans. The Kepler-69c is more like Venus as it is warmer than the other two. The planets are pretty distant from Earth but if climates are conducive, researchers might gain an important insight into the mystery of life on other planets.

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