Kepler keeps finding Earth-like planets
The Kepler telescope, or probably better described as a complete space observatory, was launched in 2009 with the specific purpose of finding other planetary systems like our own solar system with Earth-like planets orbiting a sun.
Whether we find a habitable planet or not is the question, but it sure seems like the possibility of that is getting more and more certain with each system the telescope finds. In fact, if you just go to the Nasa.gov site and click on the Kepler and K2 mission, you will find graphic after graphic of discoveries it has made so far.
This is one of my favorites:
On May 12, 2009, NASA’s Kepler spacecraft began hunting for planets outside the solar system. The graphic tells its story by the numbers.
Photo Source: Nasa.gov
The Washington Post did a great job of describing that mission and its accomplishments so far. We’ve included key points of it below and highly recommend it.
… as it is well worth your time to read and share.
NASA estimates 1 billion ‘Earths’ in our galaxy alone
An artist’s conception from a couple years ago of Kepler-62f, a planet discovered in 2013 that is comparable to the newly found Kepler 452b. Both exist in the habitable zone of their own sun. But don’t start packing your stuff in a rocket; there’s still a lot we don’t know about them. Plus, they’re both kind of far away. (Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)There are a billion Earths in this galaxy, roughly speaking. Not a million. A billion. We’re talking 1 billion rocky planets that are approximately the size of the Earth and are orbiting familiar-looking yellow-sunshine stars in the orbital “habitable zone” where water could be liquid at the surface.
That’s a billion planets where human beings, or their genetically modified descendants, as well as their dogs and cats and tomato plants and crepe myrtle trees and ladybugs and earthworms and whatnot, could plausibly live.
…… The estimate comes from NASA scientist Natalie Batalha.
…… We also shouldn’t obsess over this one particular planet, nor over any of the intriguing Earth-like planets found by Kepler so far. Kepler is looking at a narrow cone of our galaxy. It’s not an all-sky survey. The main purpose of Kepler was to do a census of a small patch of sky to get an estimate of the abundance of planets. That’s been a huge success: We now know our galaxy is lousy with planets. They’re everywhere. And they come in all sizes……. Before we make plans for colonizing these other Earths, we should pause for a second to note that there are two “Earth-like” planets orbiting our own sun and much, much closer to home than any of these extrasolar planets. Getting Venus in shape for habitability would be a terraforming challenge of the first order. Mars is potentially more congenial, but still an unpleasant place by our standards. Before we colonize Mars, we’ll probably colonize the bottom of our shallow seas. Your scribbler will avoid going into a full rant about people who think there’s a do-over in space for when we ruin our own planet.
Joel Achenbach writes on science and politics for the Post’s national desk and on the “Achenblog.”
Source: WashingtonPost.com
To read the full article, see The Washington Post
Cover Photo Credits: An artist’s conception from a couple years ago of Kepler-62f, a planet discovered in 2013 that is comparable to the newly found Kepler 452b. Both exist in the habitable zone of their own sun. But don’t start packing your stuff in a rocket; there’s still a lot we don’t know about them. Plus, they’re both kind of far away. (Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)