YES!!!!!!There is...,,,
NASA announced finding an Earth-like planet outside outside the
solar system that could have have the right temperature to support life.
As Brian Vastag reported
:
The search for Earth-like planets circling other stars is
heating up, but the latest discovery is not too hot at all. It’s not
too cold, either. Instead, the temperature on the newly announced
planet Kepler-22b could be just right for life — about 72 degrees, a
perfect spring day on Earth.
pied by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, Kepler-22b marks the best candidate yet for a life-bearing world beyond our solar system, project scientists said Monday.
If it has a surface, it ought to have a nice temperature,” said Kepler’s lead scientist, Bill Borucki, during a teleconference Monday.
“It’s
right in the middle of the habitable zone,” said Natalie Batahla, a
Kepler scientist, referring to the narrow, balmy band of space around
any star where water can be liquid. “The other exciting thing is that it
orbits a star very, very similar to our own sun.”
The actual
temperature on Kepler-22b hinges on whether the planet has an
atmosphere, which, like a blanket, would warm the surface. Even without
an atmosphere, Borucki said, the planet would likely be warm enough to
host liquid water on its surface.
If it has a surface.
Kepler 22b is in what scientists call the Goldilocks zone, which is
the band of distance away from a star which could allow for liquid
water. As AP explained:
The new planet — named Kepler-22b — has key aspects it shares
with Earth. It circles a star that could be the twin of our sun and at
just about the same distance. The planet’s year of 290 days is even
close to ours. It likely has water and rock.
The only trouble is
the planet’s a bit big for life to exist on the surface. The planet is
about 2.4 times the size of Earth. It could be more like the
gas-and-liquid Neptune with only a rocky core and mostly ocean.
“It’s so exciting to imagine the possibilities,” said Natalie Batalha, the Kepler deputy science chief.
Floating
on that “world completely covered in water” could be like being on an
Earth ocean and “it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that life
could exist in such an ocean,” Batalha said in a phone interview.
Kepler
can’t find life itself, just where the conditions might be right for
it to thrive. And when astronomers look for life elsewhere they’re
talking about everything ranging from microbes to advanced intelligence
that can be looking back at us.
So far the Kepler telescope has
spotted 2,326 candidate planets outside our solar system with 139 of
them potentially habitable ones. Even though the confirmed Kepler-22b
is a bit big, it is still smaller than most of the other candidates. It
is closest to Earth in size, temperature and star than either of the
two previously announced planets in the zone.
Excitement over the possible discovery of another planet that could support life prompted satire writer Alexandra Petri what other wonders await us on Kepler 22b:
Two astronomers are staring into a telescope, aimed 600 lightyears away.
“A new planet!” they exclaim. “Blue. Tranquil. Liquid water. Habitable, according to our instruments.”
“And it’ll only take us 22 million years to reach it,” one of them adds.
”Maybe
it’s inhabited already,” the first astronomer observes. “The
conditions seem proper. On average, the temperature of a beautiful early
summer day.”
They sigh. “Maybe things are saner there,” one
says. “Maybe they have figured out how to keep a large area of the
planetary surface with variegated traditions, languages, and national
habits under a single currency.”
“Maybe,” the first one says.
“Maybe their presidential primary process is less embarrassing, not
overloaded with people named after small reptiles and cooking
appliances, and they are not planning a debate hosted by an
entertainment mogul who resembles a loaf of bread with some fungus on
it.”
“Maybe.” The second astronomer sighs again. “Maybe the aliens
on that planet don’t have to spend all their time on social media
pretending things are going well and tending imaginary farms.”
“Maybe,
over there, blankets with sleeves that let you change the channel
without the tiny amount of movement required to pull your limbs out
from under the blanket are not a major sector of the economy.”
“Maybe they don’t have that mad rush for holiday sales that results in people being trampled and pepper-sprayed.”
adopted: washingtonpost.com
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