Scientists have found a planet named Kepler-22b which has a 290-day orbit that parks it firmly within its star’s life-friendly zone. With a radius 2.4 times larger than Earth’s, Kepler-22b is the smallest planet confirmed to sit comfortably in a sunlike star’s “habitable zone,” this means that its situated in a place where temperatures allow liquids water to exist.
Kepler-22b’s home star is shining 600 light-years away near the constellation Cygnus and is very similar to the sun, though a bit cooler. This discovery is catalogued as important because it has the potential to have inhabitants due to its resemblance to the Earth, but of course for this to be proved it needs more years of research.
A planet passing in front of one of these stars produces a telltale dimming in the star’s light, and scientists use these flickers to calculate a planet’s radius and orbital period. The team waits for three of these dimming events before considering whether a planet might be the culprit, which is why detecting longer, Earthlike orbits takes years.
Scientists still don’t know if Kepler-22b has a surface, and an atmosphere, they’ve calculated that its average surface temperature should be around 72 degrees Fahrenheit. “It would be like a pleasant day on Earth, a little bit warmer than we have today in California,” Borucki said.
During the telescope 1000 day proof, there have been more planets discoveries, these newbies bring the total number of exotreasures in the Kepler clutch to 2,326, including 207 Earth-size, and smaller planets.
There are also another 10 potential Earth-sized candidates in their stars’ habitable zones. Five are “very, very viable candidates,” Batalha said, noting that about 20 percent of the candidate planets are organized in planetary systems, which make it easier to confirm the presence of the littlest, most Earthlike orbs.
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