Newfound Exoplanets Are Most Earth-Like Yet

[shunyadragon]

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/newfound-exoplanets-are-most-earth-like-yet/?WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20150107

Newfound Exoplanets Are Most Earth-Like Yet
After five years of searching, researchers using data from NASA's exoplanet-hunting Kepler spacecraft have discovered what look to be two of the most Earth-like worlds yet. Dubbed Kepler 438 b and Kepler 442 b, both planets appear to be rocky and orbit in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold habitable zones of their stars where liquid water can exist in abundance. Astronomers announced the planets along with six other newfound small, temperate worlds today at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. Their findings will be published in The Astrophysical Journal. The discoveries double the number of known potentially habitable exoplanets. They also push Kepler's tally of vetted, confirmed worlds to just over 1,000, marking a milestone in the mission's epochal search for alien Earths.

Both planets are many hundreds of light-years away and orbit stars smaller and dimmer than our sun. Like most of Kepler's finds, they were discovered via transits—the shadows they cast toward our solar system as they cross the blazing faces of their stars. Transits allow astronomers to measure a planet's size, orbit and exposure to starlight. Kepler 438 b is only about 12 percent larger than Earth, and basks in 40 percent more starlight; Kepler 442 b is 30 percent larger and receives about 30 percent less light. Both spheres may be somewhat warmer than Kepler's two previous premier rocky worlds, Kepler 186 f and Kepler 62 f, each of which gets significantly less starlight—similar to that received by Mars. “We can't say for sure whether these planets are truly habitable—only that they are promising candidates for habitability," says study co-author David Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass.

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[Christianbookworm]

Too bad we don't have any FTL spacecraft!

[seer]

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/newfound-exoplanets-are-most-earth-like-yet/?WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20150107

Newfound Exoplanets Are Most Earth-Like Yet
After five years of searching, researchers using data from NASA's exoplanet-hunting Kepler spacecraft have discovered what look to be two of the most Earth-like worlds yet. Dubbed Kepler 438 b and Kepler 442 b, both planets appear to be rocky and orbit in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold habitable zones of their stars where liquid water can exist in abundance. Astronomers announced the planets along with six other newfound small, temperate worlds today at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. Their findings will be published in The Astrophysical Journal. The discoveries double the number of known potentially habitable exoplanets. They also push Kepler's tally of vetted, confirmed worlds to just over 1,000, marking a milestone in the mission's epochal search for alien Earths.

Both planets are many hundreds of light-years away and orbit stars smaller and dimmer than our sun. Like most of Kepler's finds, they were discovered via transits—the shadows they cast toward our solar system as they cross the blazing faces of their stars. Transits allow astronomers to measure a planet's size, orbit and exposure to starlight. Kepler 438 b is only about 12 percent larger than Earth, and basks in 40 percent more starlight; Kepler 442 b is 30 percent larger and receives about 30 percent less light. Both spheres may be somewhat warmer than Kepler's two previous premier rocky worlds, Kepler 186 f and Kepler 62 f, each of which gets significantly less starlight—similar to that received by Mars. “We can't say for sure whether these planets are truly habitable—only that they are promising candidates for habitability," says study co-author David Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass.

© Copyright Original Source

Man Shuny, did you cut one!? Check your undies man!

[shunyadragon]

Man Shuny, did you cut one!? Check your undies man!

Ignore the boar!

[One Bad Pig]

Let me know when an article regarding the find appears in ApJ. It should prove to be interesting reading.

[Christianbookworm]

Is there or is there not an earthlike planet that needs to be explored!

[shunyadragon]

Story also found here http://phys.org/news/2013-04-astroph...exoplanet.html

[One Bad Pig]

Story also found here http://phys.org/news/2013-04-astroph...exoplanet.html

I'm fairly certain that's a different story, from last year. The exoplanet designations are different.

[37818]

Oh, and I found this on an old hard drive partition image:

Source:

20070514csbre-a-p.jpg

© Copyright Original Source

[klaus54]

Are the stars red dwarfs? If so, they tend to be flare stars which cause problems for surface life. Still, I'd like to book a vacation on one of them exoplanets.

K54

[One Bad Pig]

Are the stars red dwarfs? If so, they tend to be flare stars which cause problems for surface life. Still, I'd like to book a vacation on one of them exoplanets.

K54

From my reading thus far, it seems that data for Sol-sized stars is just now becoming available (so the stars are probably red dwarfs).

ETA: Here is the paper I've been reading.

The sun for Kepler-438b is .544 M_Sol; that for Kepler-442b is .609 M_Sol. So they're K class, one step up from red dwarfs.

[klaus54]

Man Shuny, did you cut one!? Check your undies man!

Ah, the voice of ignorance regales us with his deep and thoughtful analysis.

[klaus54]

Is there or is there not an earthlike planet that needs to be explored!

Not enough data to answer is/is not, and we wouldn't be able to "explore" them anyway. Perhaps you have an alternate definition of "explore".

It would take 1000s of years to reach an exoplanet, and we are far, far away from the kind of required technology.

Maybe you're just funnin' us?

K54

[shunyadragon]

Good slide show on the recently discovery of potentially habitable planets. https://images.search.yahoo.com/imag...=yhs-fh_lsonsw

[37818]

Not enough data to answer is/is not, and we wouldn't be able to "explore" them anyway. Perhaps you have an alternate definition of "explore".

It would take 1000s of years to reach an exoplanet, and we are far, far away from the kind of required technology.

Maybe you're just funnin' us?

K54

Even if we had the means to go near light speed. So that the explorers could travel to and from in matter of weeks, not years. It would still be 2000+ years here on earth, before anyone on earth found out anything.