Planet like Earth found in star's habitable zone

[corruptrelic]

Scientists and their Kepler spacecraft have discovered for the first time a planet in distant space that is much like Earth, circling a sun-like star and lying in a region neither too hot nor too cold for an atmosphere that could support some form of life.

The temperature on that planet, the scientists say, probably is a comfortable 72 degrees, rain or shine.

The planet, whose discovery was announced Monday at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, was first detected by NASA's Kepler spacecraft two years ago, shortly after it began surveying 155,000 stars in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.

Dubbed Kepler 22b, the planet exists in what astronomers call the habitable zone of a solar system at whose center is a star only a little smaller and fainter than Earth's sun. It lies about 600 light-years away and is 2.4 times Earth's size, although its mass is still unknown, said William Borucki, the leader of the Kepler science team.

Kepler 22b circles its sun every 290 days, compared with Earth's year of 365 days, the Kepler team has determined.
Listening for life

The planet's discovery is intriguing enough that astronomers at the SETI Institute in Mountain View are about to tune their array of 42 radio telescopes, located in a valley near Redding, to listen for possible signals that could - just conceivably - indicate there's a civilization on the planet.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/05/BA511M8I5O.DTL&type=science

Bringing the wooly mammoth back to life, getting closer to finding Sil.. what's next, the discovery of Big Foot?

[wonderpug]

...to listen for possible signals that could - just conceivably - indicate there's there was a civilization with the ability and will to broadcast transmissions on the planet 600 years ago.

Fixed that for them.

Exciting stuff nonetheless!

[rickfc]

Lies. The only life in the ENTIRE universe was put on this earth by the ghost that lives in cloud city. I thought you guys all knew that already.

 

[Bullwinkle]

I'm the kind of excited I was when thinking about Santa as a kid.  Hopefully, this'll turn out to be more real, but even if not, the existence of such a planet says a lot.

[Isgrimnur]

Lies. The only life in the ENTIRE universe was put on this earth by the ghost that lives in cloud city. I thought you guys all knew that already.

 

Aw, yeah!

[Roguetad]

I'm the kind of excited I was when thinking about Santa as a kid.  Hopefully, this'll turn out to be more real, but even if not, the existence of such a planet says a lot.

I'm with you, but what if the planet is populated by a technologically advanced carnivorous species of humanoid lizard that can grow and graft organic skin to look like the inhabitants of other worlds?  Their world is dying, and they're running out of blue energy.

It all started because we saw the telltale signs of planet wobble.

Or, what if we just discovered the Imperium of Man, and soon all of us will be conscripted into a dark universe where there is only WAR.   

[leo8877]

I saw an article that said it was 72 degrees there.  How can they possibly know this?

[CeeKay]

I saw an article that said it was 72 degrees there.  How can they possibly know this?

because the planet also has a Stargate on it.

[rshetts2]

They vacationed there last year  

[Roguetad]

I was watching a documentary on SyFy last night called Neverland, and I learned that planets can actually exist inside softball sized globes of glass.  It's possible this planet is inside a glass ball, and we've been visiting it for years.  They just made up all of the planet wobble stuff to make it seem plausible. 

[corruptrelic]

Who's to say they won't look something like this?:



I heard through an anonymous source that the movie was based off of true events.

[Kagath]

An invasion I could get behind.

[TK-421]

Now there's a wave of destruction that's easy on the eyes.

[Mystic95Z]

Now it'll only take 600 years at the speed of light to get there, lets get goin !

[Ironrod]

I saw an article that said it was 72 degrees there.  How can they possibly know this?

They can't. I imagine that they are basing that on the planet's distance from its sun and assuming an earthlike atmosphere.

[wonderpug]

They're also assuming the Star Wars model of one planet, one climate, apparently.