World could have life as you may know it

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration Monday declared the discovery of a possible Earth-like world in the so-called "Goldilocks zone." That means it could possibly be charitable. The planet may have the ability to support life as it is known to us. Six hundred light-years away, it has been named Kepler 22-b. It was detected by the orbiting Kepler room telescope. Researching this world will be the next big NASA undertaking if it is viable for human beings. http://www.newsytype.com/

All about the zone

The space of a planet from a star that it orbits is called the “Goldilocks zone” typically. This world ends up being “not too hot and not too cold.” That means it can have life on it. It is a comfortable 72 degrees on Kepler 22-b.

The discovery will be published in The Astrophysical Journal. Alan Boss is on the Kepler team and part of the Carnegie Institute. He said:

"This discovery supports the growing belief that we live in a universe crowded with life."

Same attributes of Earth

Earth and Kepler 22-b have a lot in common. It isn’t just temperature. It has a sun, a G5 star that is much like ours. It only has a slightly smaller mass and radius. A single orbit for Kepler 22-b takes 290 days, which is just 75 days shorter than an Earth year. However, the newly discovered world's radius is 2.4 times that of the Earth, suggesting it might be almost entirely ocean.

"It's not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean," said Natalie Batalha, the Kepler deputy science chief.

The Kepler 21b detection was announced last week by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. That planet's radius is only 1.6 times that of the Earth. That planet is only 3.7 million miles from the sun. That means that it has a surface temperature at 2,960 degrees Fahrenheit, which is too dang hot.

Finding a new world

With orbiting planets, there are faint changes in the light coming from stars. The Kepler room telescope recognizes these as planets. This dip has to occur three times before it will be considered a world. This means it has taken almost three years to confirm that Kepler-22b is indeed a planet. This first pass occurred in 2009 right after Kepler was released. It was just three days after Kepler start up.

Looking for others out there

Kepler has determined the existence of 2,326 planets since its launch, according to CNN. Steve Howell, a scientist on the Kepler team, said:

"It's tremendously exciting. We're moving out to orbital periods that are nearly and equal to the Earth, and that means very soon we're going to be finding [planets] very near the earth, what we'd call true earth analogs. We'll be there. We'll be there probably within a year, very easily."

Sources

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/kepler-22b-new-planet-discovered-habitable-zone_n_1129591.html

Daily mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2070388/Exoplanet-Kepler-22b-NASA-Kepler-Mission-finds-habitable-blue-planet.html

New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/newly-discovered-planet-kepler-22b-eerily-similar-earth-nasa-finds-article-1.987369