Title : Planet Hunting for Earth's Twin Duration : 04:54 Posted : 13 Apr 2016 - 02:05
Planet Hunting for Earth's Twin
NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the habitable zone, the region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets. Kepler discovers planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars to search for planets that cross in front, or transit, the stars. Kepler requires at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet. The nearest known Earth like planet so far is Gliese 581D it's a large rocky Earth like planet, meaning not too hot and not too cold. The Goldilocks Zone. Based on the latest Kepler findings, astronomer Seth Shostak estimates within a thousand light-years of Earth there are at least 30,000 of these habitable worlds. The big problem is getting there for Gliese 581D is 20 light years away. The fastest man-made craft thus far is Voyager 1, racing through space at 11 miles a second. At 39,000mph it would take Voyager One 350,000 years to get there. Lets say we had a ship that could travel 1000 times faster than Voyager 1 we would be moving at a rate of 11,000 miles per second, man that's hauling the mail at 39,000,000mph. Even at this rate it would take 73 years to arrive at Gliese 581D. So far, all the new planets found have been far larger than Earth, but only because the telescopes used to detect them are not sensitive enough to detect Earth-sized bodies at such distances. Planet Hunting http://msb1959.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/planet-hunting/
Post a Comment