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ASTRONOMERS AT HARVARD have discovered what could be the most Earth-like planet ever found.
Kepler-438b is one of eight planets recently discovered in the Lyra constellation. It was discovered in the ‘Goldilocks’ zone of its parent star where the temperature is right for liquid water to flow.
The planet has a diameter just 12% bigger than earth and a 70% chance of being rocky. Keplar-438b circles an orange dwarf star that bathes it in 40% more heat than our home planet receives from the sun.
In comparison, Venus gets twice as much solar radiation as Earth. As a result, the team calculates it has a 70% likelihood of being in the habitable zone of its star.
Another of the eight newly-discovered planets, Kepler-442b, is about one-third larger than Earth, but still has a 60% chance of being rocky.
It gets about two-thirds as much light as Earth. Scientists give it a 97% chance of being in the habitable zone.
Kepler-438b, which is 470 light years away, completes an orbit around its star every 35 days, making a year on the planet pass 10 times faster than on Earth.
Habitable?
Guillermo Torres of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) said most of the eight planets “have a good chance of being rocky, like Earth”.
His team’s findings were announced today at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
David Kipping of the CfA said he and his colleagues ”don’t know for sure whether any of the planets in our sample are truly habitable … all we can say is that they’re promising candidates”.
Prior to this, the two most Earth-like planets known were Kepler-186f, which is 1.1 times the size of Earth and receives 32% as much light, and Kepler-62f, which is 1.4 times the size of Earth and gets 41% as much light.
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Makes you wonder doesn’t it whether there is other life out there.
or what that life will be. we are still looking for life based on what we know (obviously) but life might take many forms, it might live of matter that we have yet to find.
Maybe we could interbreed with these life forms.
Almost certainly has to be. Considering how unimaginably gigantic the universe is, it is more useful to approximate it to infinite. The probability of another planet encountering a situation like earth therefore tends to 1. Whether or not we can discover it, who knows!
Or they discover us….
Horndog
If there was life on other planets don’t you think it would have been mentioned somewhere in the bible?
The surest sign that there is other intelligent life out there, is that they haven’t tried to contact us yet.
Jazus Liam, one track mind or what!
It’s scarier to think we are all alone and there is no one out there
Already looking into the possibility of getting laid. Niiiice
Interbreeding might be good…..they might be good at soccer….
I like to think the universe is as diverse with life as earth is.
Interplanetary granny rule perhaps?
More competition for ms universe!
You’re sure of this?
Will Ryanair be flying there? Or some planet near it even? I need a holiday
I wouldn’t , they might charge you for each toilet visit.
At 470 light years away, that’s a lot of toilet visits and expensive cheesy croissants. Better take out a second mortgage to pay for that on Ryanair
Takes the light from the Sun eight minutes to reach Earth, 93 million miles away. Travel at that peed for a year, and then you’re 1/470th the way to this place. Then think about galaxies millions of light years away… madness
us measly humans can’t travel at the speed of light because light is a particle and we are are a mass of atoms. We would be destroyed if we tried to go that fast. We have the capability to create yokes who could though. “Us”, cloned and refined. The future talk on space exploration will be one of morality. Ultimately anyway. God is an Astronaut.
If we are the only ones out there seems like an awful waste of space
Should pack rockets full of convicted paedophiles and keep sending them up til we find out if it is habitable for the rest of mankind
Or send up those radical islam nutjobs.
What if they land on a planet full of alien kids? That would not make a good first impression for mankind
True true, probably have to send up the Swiss or the Finns.
Didn’t they try that with Australia??
It might be a cool place to live. I was getting sick of this planet anyway.
Is it close to schools though and public transport…..ya have to be practical too
Hopefully, our ‘entertainment’ broadcasts like War of the Worlds are not accidentally misinterpreted by aliens as an invitation to invade Earth as ‘they fantasise all the time about it.’
Mind you if they see a broadcast of the X Factor, they’ll probably think we’ve succumbed to some degenerative disease since the Moon landings and avoid us !!
You’d have to think that there is other life out there. That said some of the things these astronomers/scientists come out with is laughable. Are they intelligent people, yes no doubt about it but I really don’t believe that they are doing anything more than guessing what the make up of these planets are.
what it does highlight to me, when you look at vastness of space and the apparent lack of other life, how precious life is. We seldom appreciate the wonder of life, be it plant, animal or human. Unfortunately most of us just take it for granted until we loose someone near & dear :(
Just because you’re not intelligent to understand it, doesn’t mean it is laughable.
it could be the least inhabitable place in the universe, that is a fact, are you not intelligent enough to understand that. It’s based more on imagination than anything else. it’s proper/appropriate location in relation to a star is one factor. There is probably 1000 factors that they know nothing about and we/they are as of yet incapable of understanding
The speed of light measurement never gives a real appreciation of distance. The fastest humans have travelled in space to date is 24,791 mph. At this speed it would take 12,713,880 years to get there, it’s a nice to catch peoples imaginations, but that’s it, imagination
Sure why did they go to college at all………….oh yes, clearly all their information and research on the topic is right here on an online quick fix news app…..
I’m not questioning what they know, it’s what they don’t know I wonder about
Ah…..the unknown unknowns
there are many unknowns, you should educate yourself………a little anyway
Must admit I’ve never had the misfortune to lose a plant that was near and dear.
Read it again wise ass,
I suppose you refer to a plant as someone ?
Enrico Fermi’s paradox: Any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology and an immodest amount of imperial incentive could rapidly colonize the entire Galaxy. Within ten million years, every star system could be brought under the wing of empire. Ten million years may sound long, but in fact it’s quite short compared with the age of the Galaxy, which is roughly ten thousand million years. Colonization of the Milky Way should be a quick exercise. So what Fermi immediately realised was that the aliens have had more than enough time to pepper the Galaxy with their presence. But looking around, he didn’t see any clear indication that they’re out and about. This prompted Fermi to ask what was (to him) an obvious question: “where is everybody?”
Love that fermi guy
Tis’ cut outta Earth alright… Spitting image!
Imagine they were way more advanced than us and went around on hover boards
Ever think searching for ET might be a bad idea? War if the worlds springs to mind.
Watched Battleship a couple of days ago, for anyone that hasn’t seen it basically couple of scientists discover an earth like planet, send a signal to it and a few days later all hell breaks loose. So its a hard one to call if we could send a signal, do we? Or dont we…. ?
It would take 470 years for a message to get there and another 470 to get back. Feck it send it and we’ll be long gone so who gives a s***e!
Yea what happens if they turn out to be the klingons
Do….send a signal…..but dont mention me….
If they can warp time they may arrive before we even send the message…mans sense?
Considering the powerful tools we have now to have a gawk around space, should we try and locate planets that have a few hundred satellites orbiting around them like us? I’m convinced our masters know a lot more than we are told. Hundreds of thousands of sightings reported over the years. If even one of them is telling the truth we can be sure we have been visited.
Another way to look at it is, TheJournal.ie is one small/medium sized website and look at the amount of lunatic conspiracy orientated people that comment on it. There are many that would convince themselves of anything. If there is other “life” out there, it would most likely be way beyond our comprehension, and I’d hazard a guess they wouldn’t be coming on flying saucers. I can’t see how anyone say anymore than I don’t know, but so many mix imagination with knowing
An excellent book for anyone who sits on the fence about ufo’s
“UFOs : Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record”
by Leslie Kean
available on amazon, well worth a read.
They can only detect planets by how they effect light leaving the neighbouring star. To try and detect satellites around the planet is way beyond current scientific capabilities. Even if we could at the sort if distances that are involved a two way conversation with an alien planet just ain’t on the cards
There is obviously life on a planet within commuting distance of the Dail.
Just think of the travel expenses…..
Put the bible in the bin! Out of date
Dont tell FG or enda about it for gods sake..a contract for a better kepler..they’ll soon know all about tax up there
Might try it for a weekend
Might try it for a wild weekend
Nature abhors a vacuum…
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