Habitable planets discovered water - forskning.no

Illustration of planets that have been recently discovered. The largest planet in the picture, Kepler 62f, is farthest from the star and is covered by ice. Kepler 62e is in the foreground, is closer to the star and covered by clouds. (Illustration: David A. Aguilar / CfA)

Searching for extraterrestrial life has so far mostly consisted of waiting for someone to contact you.

But Kepler space telescope

try to take the bull by the horns.

Kepler is looking for intelligent life by looking for planets that are habitable, and the telescope’s latest discoveries, we have taken a big step closer.

NASA now report that they have found some of the most Earth-like planets yet. Two of them also seem to be covered seas.

The size of the Earth

is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, Eric Agol, who have found planets using data from the Kepler space telescope. One planet has been given the catchy name Kepler 62f, named after the Sun-like star it circles around, Kepler 62

Kepler 62f is one of the six planets orbiting the star. The planet lies within the magical border astronomers call the habitable zone. This zone describes the distance from a star that gives habitable temperatures.

As in our own solar system to the planets that are too far away from its star be too cold, while planets orbiting too close for warmth.

In the four years Kepler Space Telescope has orbited into orbit in search of Earth-like planets, there have been several reports of planets similar to our own. According to Kepler’s website is so far found 155 confirmed planets. The new feature of planets that are now found, is the size.

Kepler 62f is actually about 1.4 times larger than Earth, making it the smallest exoplanet in the habitable zone Space Telescope have discovered so far.

planet receives about half as much radiation and heat the Earth, and orbit the star of 267.3 days.

Another planet orbiting the star, Kepler 62e, looks a bit warmer, and computer models show that it can have a humid climate with plenty of clouds in the atmosphere.

– The planets we’ve found to date, with similar size, has been very close to the star they orbit and thus too hot to be habitable, Agol said in a statement.

– Kepler 62f is the smallest planet and simultaneously the most promising distance from its star, which is the basis of these measurements makes it the most Earth-like exoplanet Kepler has found.

term exoplanet used on planets orbiting other stars than our Sun. Thus planets outside our solar system.

Water Worlds

Although the size of the planets known, is not the mass and density it. It can tell us what kind of material they are made of, but Agol says there is a high probability that planets made of stone, and that they have a kind of atmosphere.

Illustration of Kepler satellite. (Illustration: NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech)

Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has also developed a model suggesting that both 62e and 62f are called water worlds, where the surface is completely covered by water.

– The planets are unlike anything in our solar system. They have endless sea, says lead author of the article, Lisa Kaltenegger at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and CfA.

She believes that there can be life under the sea, but the chance of technology-based life forms are less likely. Life under water leading to difficult access to metals and electricity, not to mention the fire.

– These worlds will still be beautiful blue planet orbiting an orange star, and perhaps life’s ingenuity to reach a technological stage will surprise us, ‘she said in a statement.

According to the model, Kepler 62f depend on the greenhouse effect of large amounts of carbon dioxide to be warm enough to contain liquid water. Has not this will most likely be covered with ice, as a large snowball.

data from the Kepler shows also two other planets called Kepler 69b and Kepler 69c. The latter is 70 percent larger than Earth and has a year lasting 242 days, but scientists are unsure what the planet is made of.

Examines hundreds of thousands of stars

Hubble Space behind the discoveries was launched in 2009. The main task is just to find planets similar to Earth, and who may have conditions that support life.

telescope detects changes in a star emits light as a planet revolving around it and coming between the star and the telescope.

Space Telescope have enough to do. In 2010, a study from NASA claiming that there are 46 billion Earth-like planets, only in the Milky Way. According to Kepler’s website examines the telescope over a hundred thousand stars in search of a new Tellus.

Kepler project also shows a field of research that is about to change up the search for life-friendly planets and intelligent life many notches.

Illustration of TESS satellite that is expected to be launched in 2017. (Photo: TESS team)

NASA recently announced that Kepler’s successor, Transiting exoplanets Survey Sattelite (TESS), is scheduled to launch in 2017. While Kepler has stared 3,000 light years into a limited part of the stars, this new satellite scan the entire sky and just taking in the nearest stars. It will find habitable planets in our own neighborhood.

But even if it does not look as far into space, this does not mean that it is going to examine fewer stars. While Kepler examines over one hundred thousand stars, TESS will investigate two million of our closest nabosolsystemer.

NASA hopes that TESS will find up to 1000 planets during its first two years, which will give astronomers a wealth of data to look in.

article is updated 9:30 19/4-13