Nasa has just discovered a planet like Earth known as Kepler-186f, named after the telescope that found it, the Kepler. This discovery raises the possibility that a large number of planets like earth are waiting to be found, maybe much closer to Earth.
One astronomer says that this is a tip of the iceberg discovery! Another says that it is a historic discovery of an Earth-like planet in a perfect spot around its star. Nasa says that future missions will study whether which planets are life friendly and which are not.
24 out of 1800 planets sit in what is called the habitable zone, which means it is not too hot and it's not too cold, planets like these are also called Goldilocks planets Also, 24 out of 1800 planets are as close to earth sizewise …show more content…
One problem is that Kepler-186f is some 490 light years away in a constellation called Cygnus, the star it circles is named Kepler-186 and it orbits it in just 130 days. This star is an M-dwarf star, it is smaller, cooler, and dimmer than our sun. A lot of scientists have disagreed over the fact that M-dwarf stars aren't typically good places for life since they send out more flares and damaging radiation than G-type stars, that is our sun. I mean sun flares? We don't want another Maze Runner do we?I sure don’t
But M-dwarf planets are easier to find because their planets block more of their light, And since M-dwarf planets take up 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way, there could be tons of Earth-sized planets just waiting to be found.
One Astrophysicist named Dimitar Sasselov quotes: “Whether we are an extremely rare fluke — a phenomenon that only happens once in a universe — or in a galaxy teeming with life is a very basic question not only of science, but of our existence, it’s the first time in human history we have a good shot at answering that question, and that’s very
One astronomer says that this is a tip of the iceberg discovery! Another says that it is a historic discovery of an Earth-like planet in a perfect spot around its star. Nasa says that future missions will study whether which planets are life friendly and which are not.
24 out of 1800 planets sit in what is called the habitable zone, which means it is not too hot and it's not too cold, planets like these are also called Goldilocks planets Also, 24 out of 1800 planets are as close to earth sizewise …show more content…
One problem is that Kepler-186f is some 490 light years away in a constellation called Cygnus, the star it circles is named Kepler-186 and it orbits it in just 130 days. This star is an M-dwarf star, it is smaller, cooler, and dimmer than our sun. A lot of scientists have disagreed over the fact that M-dwarf stars aren't typically good places for life since they send out more flares and damaging radiation than G-type stars, that is our sun. I mean sun flares? We don't want another Maze Runner do we?I sure don’t
But M-dwarf planets are easier to find because their planets block more of their light, And since M-dwarf planets take up 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way, there could be tons of Earth-sized planets just waiting to be found.
One Astrophysicist named Dimitar Sasselov quotes: “Whether we are an extremely rare fluke — a phenomenon that only happens once in a universe — or in a galaxy teeming with life is a very basic question not only of science, but of our existence, it’s the first time in human history we have a good shot at answering that question, and that’s very