Kepler-22b: Earth-like planet confirmed

[Akoto]

Source: BBC

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.

It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".

However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.

-snip-

Kepler 22-b lies at a distance from its sun about 15% less than the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. However, its sun puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at its balmy temperature that would support the existence of liquid water.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655

---

Cooool. :)

[dipsydoodle]

1. Maybe its made of chocolate

:shrug:

[TheWraith]

2. Actually, warm--72 degrees! :D nt

[glinda]

48. The new Florida!

[slackmaster]

3. Head now to Eden, yea brother!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRewcZXEMb8

[BOHICA12]

4. Yeah, yeah, but does it have a double break anywhere!!

A certain Colonel told me Kepler 22-bs, "Don't Surf!"

[Taverner]

5. Being that it has twice the mass, wouldn't that mean everything would be heavier?

[phantom power]

6. yep.

I think it could plausibly have a biosphere and stuff, but in my opinion "earth 2.0" is exaggerating a bit. A planet with twice earth's mass would be pretty different, even if it was as earth-like as possible in all other ways.

[immoderate]

7. It would. But life developed here in the oceans.

Gravity is not so much an issue under water. If it moves onto land there would be some structural differences, I suppose. The difference, I think, is not enough to prohibit life as we know it.

On edit: My calculation is that you would weigh 1.28 times as much as you do on earth, given average equal density.



--imm

[Jeroen]

8. Your weight on other worlds (link)

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/

[targetpractice]

10. Venus here I come! n/t

[Rozlee]

17. Jupiter makes my butt look big. n/t.

[Old Troop]

22. That's too cool!

[thereismore]

9. If the planet has a solid or liquid surface, yes. It could also be a big gas planet. nt

[immoderate]

14. I don't think it has enough mass to be a gas planet.

I don't know the math, but I think there is a minimum for a gas ball to hang together. the high temperature may be an issue also.

--imm

[sofa king]

40. I think you're right.

2.4 earth diameters is tiny by gas giant standards--probably way too small to hold itself together. Interestingly enough, they don't get much larger than Jupiter, either. Once they get more massive than that, their diameter grows only slightly as gravity holds it ever more tightly together.

On the other hand, it's friggin' huge for a rocky planet. I'm sure it won't be long before someone computes the surface gravity of an earth-like planet of that size, and I'm sure it will be many times that of Earth, which has the highest surface gravity of any object we know of in this solar system (gas giants don't count because there's nowhere to stand!). Trying to stand on the surface would be like trying to stand up during a Space Shuttle launch.

Edit: for comparison, Neptune is the smallest gas giant we know of; it's 30,000 miles wide, or 3.7 EDs. Which suggests that if the measurement holds up, this planet is an "in-betweener," which makes it all the more interesting.

[immoderate]

44. By my calc, it will have a gravity about 2.4 times Earth.

The mass (volume) is about 58 earths, but because of the inverse square relationship the gravity at the surface would be about 2.4g.

But I am an amateur and I would welcome correction or confirmation. :shrug:

On edit: Note that I am not just multiplying diameters.

--imm

[thereismore]

45. You are correct. If this planet has the same density as Earth, there is 2.4g on the surface.

That means even earth-like life could exist comfortably in the oceans, if it has any. 2.4g is not that much actually. It is what many obese people carry on their hips every day, compared to slim people.

[immoderate]

47. Thanks.

I made myself a little nuts. The gravity is proportional to the radius cubed, and inversely proportional to the radius squared. So it comes out proportional to the change in radius (given the same density.)

I was hesitant, because the solution seemed so simple.

--imm

[TheWraith]

13. Note that the article says "size," not "mass."

I'm not sure if that's simply a failure of science reporting. But if they did mean size as in volume, then it doesn't necessarily follow that it would definitely have higher gravity--it would depend on the density and mass of the planet. If, for instance, it had a smaller nickel-iron core, it could be 2x the Earth's volume while actualy being less than our mass.

Jupiter, right here close to home, has over 1300 times the volume of the Earth, but only 320 times our mass. And it's "surface gravity" is only 2.5 times ours.

However, even if this planet did have twice the volume of Earth and the same average density, the surface gravity there would be only 1.26 of Earth standard. Someone who weighed 200 pounds on Earth would weigh 252 pounds there.

[Foolacious]

19. Another article said 2.4 times the RADIUS of Earth,

so, assuming the same average density as Earth, you'd weigh 2.4 times as much; volume and therefore mass (because of the density assumption) increase as the cube of the radius, and gravity increases linearly with mass and decreases with the square of the radius. In other words, 2.4 cubed divided by 2.4 squared is 2.4. It would be uncomfortable.

Of course, the other article's claim that it's 2.4 times Earth's radius could easily be a misunderstanding. Does anyone have a link to the actual report?

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. It's 2.4 times the radius - here's the NASA page:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepscicon-briefing.html

[KamaAina]

53. That would mean it has many, many times the surface area of Earth

not going to try to wrap my head around the math just now, but this sucker is HUGE.

[muriel_volestrangler]

54. Nearly 6 times - area goes up as the square

2.4*2.4=5.76

[RC]

23. Yes it would. and it would change the make up of the atmosphere, too

Is its atmosphere like Venus? Mars? Does it have a magnetic field needed to hold its atmosphere and protect any life? We need to know things like this to know if it is really "earth like".

[dipsydoodle]

27. Wouldn't suit women then

They'd be constantly moaning about their bums looking bigger there.

[Bandit]

46. Not twice the mass, but twice the size, there is a difference.

A lot depends on the core make-up of the planet. We have a solid mass core which creates our magnetic fields.. Some planets have a hollow core and there for no magnetic field which acts as a shield from dangerous rays....not to mention less mass...

[Ter]

50. No

While the larger planet usually has more gravity, it's not always exact. A planet exactly twice as large doesn't mean it has exactly twice as much. It could have the same, or a little more. Just like a guy 5'8 can have the same, err, shoe size as a guy 6'2. The 6'2 guy will usually have the larger shoe size, but not always.

[Evasporque]

11. It is the Meat Planet Carl Sagan talked about...

http://youtu.be/ZP7K9SycELA

[JVS]

24. Whoa!

[SemperEadem]

12. that's nice

in 2612, tell us what you found.

[VWolf]

15. 600 freaking light-years away

and we're able to determine its size, temperature, distance from its sun and orbital period (and many other parameters, I'm sure).

I have nothing but admiration for astronomers.

[snooper2]

25. And nobody has found heaven or Allah or Jesus yet...

...


makes ya think, or at least it should :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[zonkers]

42. Me too. I can barely wrap my head around basic division. I should sue my high school.

[glinda]

49. Bwahahahahaaha!

[GETPLANING]

16. Quick, let's go colonize it.

Got to be lots of minerals, oil & gas, and GOLD!!!! And since it's twice the size, it will take us twice as long to ruin it! (ctl/alt/snark/enter)

[Yo_Mama]

18. Occupy Kepler 22-b!

[MilesColtrane]

20. Unobtanium, here we come.

[aquart]

21. Class M?

[No Elephants]

26. All Kepler 22-b's base are belong to us!

[iandhr]

28. Kepler 22-b: Earth-like planet confirmed

Source: BBC

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.

It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".

However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.

During the conference at which the result was announced, the Kepler team said that it had spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655

[iandhr]

29. sorry I made a duplicate post delate it please

[HereSince1628]

30. TFTBR. But hey, we can dream.

The time-lag on the phone calls between BFF would actually take BFF (bloody fucking forever).

[DaveJ]

31. Nice, a pleasant 71 degrees.

Someone just needs to invent warp travel. Between subzero temps and conservative wingnuts I'd be on the first spaceship outa here.

I'm not confident in that warp travel will ever be invented though. I'm of the mindset that if it were possible, we would have seen visitors from other planets by now.

[Ter]

51. Who said we haven't seen them?

Rosewell? UFO's?

[sarcasmo]

32. When can I move?

[and-justice-for-all]

33. Tannis...nt

[pettypace]

34. How long it would take to get to Kepler:

It's 600 light years away.

1 light year = 6 trillion miles

The fastest man made object (Helios probe) travelled at 157,000 MPH.

157000 miles x 24 hrs x 365 days = 1.375 billion miles/per year

So to travel just ONE light year would take (6000/1.375) = 4363 years.

Now multiply 4363 by 600 and you get:

2.6 million years to reach Kepler (assuming you could continuously maintain the 157k mph speed)


Lol

[ngant17]

36. and dodging micro-asteroids all the while, which are

traveling 25 kilometers per second. Much denser than armor-piercing rounds. Lots of that stuff left over from the Big Bang.

Note: Your 156,000 mph is 69.7 km/sec. You can effectively add that speed to the asteroid if it is making a head-on collision with your spacecraft.

Also cosmic radiation possibly will kill you before anything else.

Space travel is a fantasy, can't be done with known technology.

Right now the biggest problem is our own space junk in near-Earth orbit. We haven't found any way to get past that.

[survivorista]

35. How do we really know this?

I'm sure other stars have planets, but are our criteria that exact?

[dipsydoodle]

37. Ryanair to offer first budget flights to Kepler 22-b

Budget airline Ryanair has stolen a march on the competition by offering discount flights to newly discovered Earth-like planet Kepler 22-b, flying into Kepler 22-b Luton airport.

Kepler 22-b is about 2.4 times the size of Earth and at a temperature of 22C it is likely to be more welcoming than a number of the shitholes Ryanair currently flys to.

Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said, “It is important for us to retain our position as the leading provider of cheap flights to hard to reach places.”

>

“For just £20 return, excluding taxes and any other charges we can think of, we we will fly you to Kepler 22-b Luton airport, where you will be just a short 600 light year bus journey away from your final destination.”

http://newsthump.com/2011/12/06/ryanair-to-offer-first-budget-flights-to-kepler-22-b/

[Odin2005]

38. I bet this world looks something like this:

http://www.worlddreambank.org/L/LYR.HTM

[Crop Circle]

52. Thanks for that link! A few hypothetic worlds await my reading pleasure!

[madokie]

39. can I go

[mistertrickster]

41. "Earth-like" at 2.5 g's? I think not.

Imagine suddenly weighing five hundred pounds . . . a gallon of milk weighing 25 pounds, picking up your child would be like lifting 150 pounds.

That would be a major problem for earthlings living there IF we could get there, which we can't.