NASA discovers first-ever Earth-sized planet

Gabe Carey

Posts: 51   +0

Thanks to its Kepler mission, NASA revealed yesterday that it has discovered the first planet comparable in size to Earth within the habitable zone, the area surrounding a star in which liquid bodies of water could reside on an orbiting planet. This is in addition to the 11 other planets considered candidates in an effort to discover a second Earth.

"On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun," added NASA administrator John Grunsfeld. "This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0."

Dubbed Kepler-452b, this newly unraveled feat is the smallest planet yet to be identified in the habitable zone, orbiting a G2-type star similar to Earth's sun. This discovery brings the number of confirmed planets to a total of 1,030.

In comparison to Earth, Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in its diameter, thereby scientifically classifying it as a "super-Earth-size planet". And, although its mass and composition remain unclear, research indicates that a planet of Kepler-452b's magnitude is more than likely going to be cloaked with a rocky surface terrain.

Despite occupying more space, the Kepler-452b presents a 5 percent longer 385-day orbit than Earth. It's also positioned 5 percent farther from its star than Earth from its sun. Better yet, the planet is recorded to be 6 billion years old, making it 1.5 billion years older than our sun. Moreover, it has the same temperature as Earth, is 20 percent brighter, and suggests a diameter 10 percent larger than ours.

If you were to visit Kepler-452b, you would experience gravity twice that of Earth and while it's not clear whether or not life inhabits the planet, data analyst Jon Jenkins asserts that "It's awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth. That's substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet."

Furthermore, researchers at NASA consider Kepler-452b to be an "older, bigger cousin" to Earth, potentially giving scientists the opportunity to further comprehend the ever-changing environments on Earth.

Located 1,400 light-years away from Earth, Kepler-452b is just one in many discoveries made by the Kepler team in recent years. From research conducted between May 2009 and May 2013, the team raised the number of new exoplanet candidates by 521. Additionally, the number of total candidate planets has increased to 4,696, though these candidates now require further examination to confirm that they are, in fact, actual planets.

Of the new candidates discovered, twelve of these planets both possess diameters one to two times the size of Earth's and orbit within the habitable zone of their star. Nine of these planet candidates orbit stars comparable to the sun.

All of these findings will be reported on in the Astrophysical Journal, derived from publicly accessible data on the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Presently, scientists are compiling the final catalog to be based on the original four-year Kepler mission data set. Research will be concluding using "sophisticated software that is increasingly sensitive to the tiny telltale signatures of Earth-size planets".

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Earth plants hu hu.... I want to know about the life u allready discovered years ago!!!
 
So, Venus isn't an Earth sized planet? What about Kepler 20f, 20e, and 186f, all are closer in size to Earth than 452b.

A more accurate title might have been.. "Nasa announces most Earth-like exoplanet yet confirmed by Kepler"
 
I don't care what another people think but earth is make for us , not other planet, EARTH is a beautiful planet but man have destroy it. anyway the END of this system is about to END soon .
 
500 LY away, yeah, good luck getting there. It would take New Horizons 10,6 million years to get there.

Imagine this, should we get enough telescope resolution to even see an actual civilization there (lights and all, it would be easy to recognize it), even sending a message and getting an answer would require at least a thousand years. I doubt any of our successors would even remember the message being sent.

Let's face it, the Universe is made in such a way that no single planet can provide a civilization with enough material to get to other star systems. This would also answer the ubiquitous Fermi paradox... Why aren't the oldest civilizations ruling the galaxy by now ? Because they can't. My 2 cents...
 
I don't care what another people think but earth is make for us , not other planet, EARTH is a beautiful planet but man have destroy it. anyway the END of this system is about to END soon .

We are here by chance, it wasn't made for us. We aren't special snowflakes and we will have to leave this planet one day.

Statistically speaking, we'll probably be wiped out by a space rock before that happens. Though, I suppose that is a departure of sorts.
 
I got a wormhole to this planet. Any ladies wanna take a whirl?

As a faux lawyer, I feel it is my duty to inform said ladies that the wormhole operator is intimately familiar with the concept of jurisdiction.
 
500 LY away, yeah, good luck getting there. It would take New Horizons 10,6 million years to get there.

Imagine this, should we get enough telescope resolution to even see an actual civilization there (lights and all, it would be easy to recognize it), even sending a message and getting an answer would require at least a thousand years. I doubt any of our successors would even remember the message being sent.

Let's face it, the Universe is made in such a way that no single planet can provide a civilization with enough material to get to other star systems. This would also answer the ubiquitous Fermi paradox... Why aren't the oldest civilizations ruling the galaxy by now ? Because they can't. My 2 cents...

Until 5 years from now FTL becomes a thing and we go there in a weeks time?

If there was other intelligent life around we'd have seen glimpses of it by now.
 
Until 5 years from now FTL becomes a thing and we go there in a weeks time?

If there was other intelligent life around we'd have seen glimpses of it by now.

You're kidding, right ? There's not a single particle in this huge Universe moving at superluminal speeds, and we're gonna move humans and ships faster than that. OK.

There's no intelligent life in an almost infinite Universe that's three times the age of our puny solar system... OK again.
 
"tomkaten




Until 5 years from now FTL becomes a thing and we go there in a weeks time?




If there was other intelligent life around we'd have seen glimpses of it by now.





You're kidding, right ? There's not a single particle in this huge Universe moving at superluminal speeds, and we're gonna move humans and ships faster than that. OK.



There's no intelligent life in an almost infinite Universe that's three times the age of our puny solar system... OK again."


What the hell is almost infinite. Let me list some of the fallacies you utilized:

Appeal to probability
Appeal to the stone
Argument from ignorance
 
Infinite to all intents and purposes... Is that better ? English is not my native language.

"Almost infinite" as in not infinite as defined by science but practically infinite as far as human understanding of these distances is concerned.

But anyway, thanks for listing every logical fallacy you could find on Wikipedia to prove your intellectual prowess.
 
@ Guest above with the 3 links.

I'm confused. The universe is vast. Are you trying to say there's no chance of life out there? So we are special snowflakes? ****. Kindergartner teachers are correct. Everyone is a special snowflake.

Anyways, the only method that quantified such things at the moment is the Drake Equation. But as expected, the results vary a lot. However statistically we can't deny the existence of other life forms out there. They may not be advanced but there could be something as Stephen Hawking had talked about before.
 
"tomkaten




Until 5 years from now FTL becomes a thing and we go there in a weeks time?




If there was other intelligent life around we'd have seen glimpses of it by now.





You're kidding, right ? There's not a single particle in this huge Universe moving at superluminal speeds, and we're gonna move humans and ships faster than that. OK.



There's no intelligent life in an almost infinite Universe that's three times the age of our puny solar system... OK again."


What the hell is almost infinite. Let me list some of the fallacies you utilized:

Appeal to probability
Appeal to the stone
Argument from ignorance

No sir YOU must be kidding

1. wormhole theories has been floating around for ages and we're making lots technological discoveries ALL THE TIME. You should like a "the world is flat and the sun rotates around it" type person by being so closeminded.

2. We have tons of spectrograph/radiography satellites looking at other stars and planets all the time to figure out their masses and distance composition etc etc. When I said "out there" I'm obviously referring to the area of space we can "see" which is pretty damn HUGE already.
 
Wormhole theories are just that, theories. Space is not going to suddenly fold only because we want it to, if that's even possible, the forces required to "bend it to your will" so to speak are way beyond human comprehension. Theorizing about them does not mean we're any closer to achieving such a feat.

And even if they occur naturally, "Interstellar" is just a SF movie after all. Squeezing matter through a space (BH) that crushes every known matter in the Universe into a singularity and hoping it would make it to the other side is just great Sci-Fi material.
 
tomkaten
"But anyway, thanks for listing every logical fallacy you could find on Wikipedia to prove your intellectual prowess"


add
ad hominum

As for the drake equation. it is useless. I can plug a zero in 4 of those variables. It's as valid as my guest equation:
N=L
N=number of civilizations in galaxy
L= number of civilizations I think are in galaxy.
 
Wormhole theories are just that, theories. Space is not going to suddenly fold only because we want it to, if that's even possible, the forces required to "bend it to your will" so to speak are way beyond human comprehension. Theorizing about them does not mean we're any closer to achieving such a feat.

And even if they occur naturally, "Interstellar" is just a SF movie after all. Squeezing matter through a space (BH) that crushes every known matter in the Universe into a singularity and hoping it would make it to the other side is just great Sci-Fi material.

Come ON
higgs bonson was a theory
Microwaves was a theory
everything was theory at one point, what is this skepticism nonsense?!
Your responses are literally no different from back in the "the world is flat, I cant comprehended it being round."
Show an iphone to someone from the 1800's and they would think its alien technology.
You cant imagine that in 1000 years from now what we know now would be just as outdated as 1000 years ago was? You really think there will be no progress even though there is mountains of evidence to suggest the contrary?

I'm done, haters gonna hate and nay sayers gonna say everything is impossible even while witnessing it
 
add
ad hominum

It's "ad hominem". You seem to like these Latin derived fallacies, so at least do them justice and spell them right.

@lipe123: Funny thing is I'm not that kind of guy, I'm as disgusted as you are by those pessimists.

But comparing moving at relativistic speeds or bridging huge distances through WH's to any other "local" successes we might have achieved is just illogical.

In the end, I'll just leave this short quote from NASA here:


Is Warp Drive Real?
Ever since the sound barrier was broken, people have turned their attention to how we can break the light speed barrier. But “Warp Drive” or any other term for faster-than-light travel still remains at the level of speculation.

The bulk of scientific knowledge concludes that it’s impossible, especially when considering Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. There are certainly some credible concepts in scientific literature, however it’s too soon to know if they are viable.
 
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It's "ad hominem". You seem to like these Latin derived fallacies, so at least do them justice and spell them right.

@lipe123: Funny thing is I'm not that kind of guy, I'm as disgusted as you are by those pessimists.

Comparing moving at relativistic speeds or bridging huge distances through WH's to any other "local" successes we might have achieved is just illogical.

In the end, I'll just leave this short quote from NASA here:
and yet one year ago we already did this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...-that-could-prove-einstein-wrong-9462053.html
 
"The main application of quantum teleportation is a quantum version of the internet, extending a global network that we can use to send quantum information," said Professor Hanson.

"What you're doing is using entanglement as your communication channel. The information is teleported to the other side, and there's no way anyone can intercept that information."

I fail to see how that would help us make it to the stars. And wouldn't such a process require you to travel to your destination in the first place and maybe place the "end journey" receptacle there ? You can't just "teleport" out hoping to make it to a habitable planet.
 
Since I'm not as articulate as I'd like to be in English, I'll just leave this Disqus quote from a much smarter guy than I will ever be. It's pretty much my current (very limited) view of it all, but I just couldn't express it so eloquently:

ZenGeekDad:

Scientists are, at our core, driven by breathless excitement for the possible more than you might ever imagine. But you don’t get to the stars (or atoms, or DNA, or photonic computing) by hopeful wonder alone. The reason no one has built a car that runs on water is NOT resistance to new ideas; it is because all the “Yeah but WHAT IF”s in the world cannot break the second law of thermodynamics.

Breakthroughs do happen. But, in the last many decades, all the major fundamental science discoveries have been amendments to, not reversals of, prior theory. No one will ever invent the untoaster – which makes bread from toast – … it’s that second law of thermo again.
 
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