Kepler 22b
Kepler 22b, new planet or super earth: How to ascertain it?
For many of us, the distance of 600 light years may be very difficult to comprehend. One light year away if measured in our kilometer term is at least 10 trillion kilometers away from our earth. So you can ‘easily’ calculate as to how many years it may take to actually take you to that super planet that NASA scientists are talking about.
A reader has sent this sarcastic response, “Interesting discovery! What did it cost the American taxpayer for NASA to make this discovery? What do they really expect to learn from their telescopic observations? Think about this: The planet is 600 light years away (folks, that is 3,526,800,000,000,000 miles); it is reported that it would take 20 million years to reach the planet, which would indicate a required sustained average of 22,315 mph to get there. Sorry, but the whole space exploration operation begs the question: What have we really learned that will benefit us, and ad what cost?
But most of the people seem very happy to know that the planet looks like earth and may be the first planet to support vegetation.
With the new finding, NASA may silence many a voices that were seeking further slashing of its funding. Kepler mission has reportedly discovered as many as more than 1200 planets, but this is the first one that it claims may support vegetation. Kepler Mission or NASA Discovery mission number 10, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets.
Kepler has been very intricately designed to detect stars millions of kilometers away. When a planet crosses in front of its star as viewed by an observer, the event is called a transit. Transits by terrestrial planets produce a small change in a star’s brightness of about 1/10,000 (100 parts per million, ppm), lasting for 2 to 16 hours. This change must be absolutely periodic if it is caused by a planet. In addition, all transits produced by the same planet must be of the same change in brightness and last the same amount of time, thus providing a highly repeatable signal and robust detection method.
A NASA report says, “Once detected, the planet’s orbital size can be calculated from the period (how long it takes the planet to orbit once around the star) and the mass of the star using Kepler’s Third Law of planetary motion. The size of the planet is found from the depth of the transit (how much the brightness of the star drops) and the size of the star”.
New Planet Kepler-22b: Planet Similar to Earth in the Habitable Zone
New planet similar to Earth was discovered. The planet is called Kepler-22b. It is said to be similar to the earth and located just outside the solar system. NASA announced this new planet discovery on Monday. They said that the planet is in the habitable zone. Habitable zone is described as an areas distance from the star which temperature allows liquid water existence. How close or how far the planet is? The planet is located about 600 light-years from earth.
How Far the New Planet is?
One light year means six trillion miles and it means 600 light years equals 22 million years travel with space shuttle. The scientists are optimistic that the new planet brings them one step closer to find the planet that has the same characteristic to earth and make it possible for human to live in another planet. If we see the new planet image, it is clear the appearance of the planet is similar to earth.
Scientists Agreed that New Planet have Similarities to Earth
The new planet temperature is about 72 degrees Fahrenheit. It orbits to a star that similar to the sun every 290 days, just 75 days different from the earth. However, NASA said that the composition of the planet is still unclear. It can be composed from gas, rock or liquid. The scientists continue that the finding of Kepler-22b indicates the finding of new planet that similar to earth in this lifetime
That’s right! Just a few days ago, NOAO (National Optical Astronomy Observatory) discovered the planet Kepler 21b and now this discovery of Kepler 22b which is pretty much located in the habitable zone is turning to be NASA’s one of the biggest successes.
Color – Blue Tran-quit
Radius – 2.4 times the earth’s
Temperature – 72 degrees Fahrenheit
Distance From it’s sun – 79 million miles
Completes the Orbit – 290 days
Distance from Earth – 600 light years (22 million years to reach)
A search of the time-series photometry from NASA's Kepler spacecraft reveals a transiting planet candidate orbiting the 11th magnitude G5 dwarf KIC 10593626 with a period of 290 days. The characteristics of the host star are well constrained by high-resolution spectroscopy combined with an asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler photometry, leading to an estimated mass and radius of 0.970 +/- 0.060 MSun and 0.979 +/- 0.020 RSun. The depth of 492 +/- 10ppm for the three observed transits yields a radius of 2.38 +/- 0.13 REarth for the planet. The system passes a battery of tests for false positives, including reconnaissance spectroscopy, high-resolution imaging, and centroid motion. A full BLENDER analysis provides further validation of the planet interpretation by showing that contamination of the target by an eclipsing system would rarely mimic the observed shape of the transits. The final validation of the planet is provided by 16 radial velocities obtained with HIRES on Keck 1 over a one year span. Although the velocities do not lead to a reliable orbit and mass determination, they are able to constrain the mass to a 3{\sigma} upper limit of 124 MEarth, safely in the regime of planetary masses, thus earning the designation Kepler-22b. The radiative equilibrium temperature is 262K for a planet in Kepler-22b's orbit. Although there is no evidence that Kepler-22b is a rocky planet, it is the first confirmed planet with a measured radius to orbit in the Habitable Zone of any star other than the Sun.
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