The Kepler Telescope Found New Earth Like Planets Better Than Earth

 

there's obvious reasons why we would  want to search for other planets  as much as we hate to admit it our own  planet  isn't doing so great right now and so it  might not be a bad idea to start looking  for alternatives  welcome to fact nominal and we're  dishing out the details on some recent  celestial breakthroughs in  new earth-like planets that have been  recently discovered  by the kepler telescope fortunately it  seems nasa once also believed in the  potential coolness of  searching for new planets and so they  launched up a telescope to seek them out  that telescope was named the kepler  space telescope and today  we'll tell you about the crazy  discoveries it made on its mission  why the name the naming convention for  this behemoth is quite  fitting johann kepler was a famous  astronomer  that made incredible discoveries that  shaped the way astronomy is studied  today  his revolutionary three laws of  planetary motion are used today  in analyzing the orbits and movement of  planets around  other orbital objects it only seems  fitting  that a telescope dedicated to analyzing  other planets would be named after him  the design of the telescope the main  instrument of the kepler telescope is a  photometer  a device that allows for accurate  measurements of the luminosities of  various different objects  the photometer was designed specifically  to continually  measure the brightness of around 150 000  main sequence stars around the milky way  these are the most common form of stars  and are the kind we  need our future home to be orbiting  around if we hope to  not only stay alive but thrive this data  would  constantly be sent back to earth where  nasa would analyze it to determine if  any exoplanets had passed by the star  what's the mission the kepler space  telescope had  one seemingly simple goal  to go where no man has gone before  and seek out new worlds similar to our  own  the satellite was launched on march 7  2009  in a heliocentric orbit that would give  it a clear view  of any earth-like planets close to us on  october 30th 2018  the fuel for the telescope's reaction  control system was officially deemed to  be depleted  and nasa formally retired the telescope  from action  that leaves a whole nine years orbiting  around the blue marble  what kind of stuff did it find during  that time  what did it find over the course of nine  and a half years of service the kepler  telescope reported the observations of  over 530  000 stars and successfully detected  2662 planets  as early as 2009 the year it first came  online  it had already reported some  extraordinary results  in fact within the first six weeks  kepler had discovered five  previously unknown planets all of which  were close to their associated stars  one of the results as it turned out was  one of the least dense planets yet found  while it's not a viable candidate for  earth 2.0  it is interesting within the scientific  community  by 2010 kepler had reported data on all  but 400 of the 150  000 target stars out of these 706 were  reported to have viable exoplanet  candidates  with sizes going from the size of earth  to much larger than jupiter  it took over a year for nasa to properly  analyze the results of kepler's finding  and on february 2nd 2011  they made some groundbreaking  announcements  out of the potential candidates the  kepler team noted    1235 that were a size close enough to  earth  that potential habitation could be  considered  54 of these fines were reported to be  possibly  within the habitable zone the distance  from a star  at which a planet could theoretically  contain liquid water  obviously if we're picking a new home  having some water on the surface would  be one of our first priorities  it's possible that we may even have some  roommates  unwanted or not this discovery was quite  monumental  up until the kepler team had reported  these findings only two planets  were thought to be in the habitable zone  one of the more notable milestones was  the discovery of the first exoplanets  that resembled our earth  two planets dubbed kepler-20e and  kepler-20f  these two planets orbited kepler-20 a  star that was also quite similar to our  own sun  based on these findings astronomers made  some estimates as to  how many habitable planets we may have  in our vicinity  seth shostak in 2011 estimated that  within a thousand light years of earth  there are at least thirty 000 habitable  planets  adding to this incredible projection the  kepler team used their findings to  deduce that there are at least  50 billion planets in the milky way with  at least  500 million of them existing within the  oh so sought after habitable zone  what kind of planets did it find that  were similar to earth  kepler 69c  given that there's a reported 500  million planets in the milky way that  may exist within our habitable zone  one would only expect that we'd find  some that are similar to our own  a notable earth-like planet popped up in  2013  kepler-69c many studies have  come to a similar conclusion that this  exoplanet  may be one of the most earth-like  planets ever found  its size and temperature are remarkably  close to our own  and it orbits its star at 0.7 a u  which means it's well within the  habitable zone that being said  while kepler-69c may be habitable it is  by no means hospitable  recent studies have found that the  makeup of the exoplanet is more similar  to venus than it is of earth  it wouldn't have any oceans as the  reported stellar flux of 1.35  would make sure that any water would be  boiled away  and that's even at the lower end of the  temperature estimates  as the oceans boiled away water vapor  accumulates within the atmosphere  water vapors act as a powerful  greenhouse gas  raising the surface temperature of the  planet to an insanely high amount  about 227 degrees celsius this cycle  causes a runaway greenhouse effect on  the planet's surface  given that most scientific estimates  predict that kepler-69c was  at one point in its life cycle an ocean  planet  the effect of this boiling would be  devastating for the habitability of the  planet  low amounts of carbon dioxide would have  been present in the atmosphere  and so while kepler-69c made a look  and have the same properties as our blue  marble it differs in small but  impactful ways if we were to eventually  move there however the road trip would  be quite long  it's located about 2433  light-years away from earth nevertheless  it's an incredibly interesting case  study and it definitely is something  that  science should keep its eye on in the  future kepler-62e  kepler-62e is another earth-like planet  that holds the potential to be habitable  given the planet's age of around 7  billion years  a stellar flux of around 1.2 times that  of earth  and a radius of around 1.61 times that  of earth it's entirely possible  that kepler-62e could possess a rocky  composition that could even feature a  large amount of  water in fact studies into planets  similar in size to kepler 62e  suggest that planets like it can be  completely covered in oceans so  yeah it's well within the habitable zone  that being said other studies have shown  that planets with a radius of over 1.6  times that of earth's run the risk of  having a volatile rich composition that  is similar to neptunes meaning that our  dream planet may  in fact be completely gaseous with no  definite surface and so  may not be habitable for any terrestrial  life form  additionally while the stellar flux of  kepler-62e is not that much higher than  earth's  it's entirely possible that the surface  temperature could be over  77 degrees celsius which unfortunately  is enough to trigger the runaway  greenhouse effect that led to the demise  of kepler-69c  regardless the discovery of kepler-62e  led to a massive cultural appreciation  for the efforts of the kepler telescope  on may 9 2013 a congressional hearing by  two of the u.s house of representatives  subcommittees discussed  exoplanet discoveries have we found  other earths  where the discoveries of kepler took  center stage particularly kepler-69c and  62e  unfortunately with 62 e's distance of  over  1200 light years away it's just too  remote and too far away for any of our  current telescopes to get a good look at  and scientific instruments are currently  unable to get accurate readings on its  properties  so we're left to speculate as to the  true nature of it  regardless the possibility of an  earth-like planet being able to support  life is  truly fascinating and the kepler  telescope's discovery of such planets  has proved to the scientific community  that our future  may just be in the stars possibly  sooner than we'd expect