NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

[n2doc]

Source: NASA

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

"On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0."

Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-kepler-mission-discovers-bigger-older-cousin-to-earth

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[shenmue]

1. Earth's bigger, older cousin

immediately took its lunch money.

[Renew Deal]

2. How long until we are a multi-planetary species?

[SoLeftIAmRight]

3. Not soon enough

I do think Kim Stanley Robinson is coming around to my conclusion...

I want us to move throughout the solar system and far beyond but, we most likely will find that earth is our home and must be protected.

[LongTomH]

5. Agreed on all counts! We need to preserve the Earth and move into space!

Stephen Hawking and the late Carl Sagan have said that, if we want to survive long-term we need to expand beyond the Earth.

[47of74]

16. Me too.

And those who start in on the we're doomed so why bother...go away.

[Rozlee]

6. Probably never.

Our species is too aggressive to use its resources for only beneficial knowledge. We use most of them for implements of war. We achieved self-annihilating capacities long before we reached the wisdom not to use them on ourselves. I can't remember if it was Carl Sagan or some other noted astronomer who said once that intelligent aliens contacting us would most likely be benevolent. Space exploration used up a lot of resources and a species that used such resources to further science over war most likely was benign.

[NickB79]

11. Likely never, considering how close to global collapse we are already

The ecological damage we're wrecked on the planet have already pushed us past the point of no return on muptiple fronts: climate change, ocean acidification, sea level rise, loss of arable soils, species loss, etc. These converging catastrophes virtually guarantee that we'll see a mass die-off of our species in the next 50 years or so from war, famine and economic collapse.

We'll be lucky to still have a few operational satellites by the year 2100, much less a functioning interstellar space program.....

[Baclava]

17. Never, the distances are just too great, unless we terraform Mars or some other local body

1400 light years away?

we can't even get out of our own backyard

and it's a long way out - the human brain can't conceive of such distances to even the closest star

have a taste of the emptiness

http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

[LongTomH]

18. Don't bet that we'll never make it!

Take a look at this site: http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/

or this: http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?cat=18

[Baclava]

19. The stars? fantasy dreams - we can't even get to low earth orbit without Russia's help!

The US space program is in shambles - it'll be 50 years before they do anything meaningful with manned flight, if then.
Humans are just too expensive a cargo and too fragile for long deep space flights. Unless we genetically engineer some resistant to radiation.

Michael Crichton once wrote that if you had told a physicist in 1899 that within a hundred years humankind, would – among other wonders (nukes, commercial airlines) – “travel to the moon and then lose interest . . . the physicist would almost certainly pronounce you mad”

Robots will rule space for the next 1000 years, bet on it.

[The Stranger]

20. As soon as someone can conjure up a wyrmhole?

Otherwise, never.

[villager]

4. I thought habitable planets had already been confirmed?

Or was it simply that other planets had been confirmed?

[Telcontar]

7. Just planets in the Goldilocks zone

Liwuid water could exist, but we haven't the ability to detect it at this range.

[kenfrequed]

8. Caveat, this is humor.

If other advanced civilizations do occur on these sorts of Super-Earth sized planets, do you think that they might look at our smaller orb and look askance at our world the way we do at Pluto? To those life forms would the Earth represent a sub-planetary mass (or whatever terminology they would use?)

[ashling]

9. Intelligent life on earth?

[kenfrequed]

12. That is a beautiful cover.

Ordinarily I am not a fan of modern country, but this was very good.

[bikebloke]

10. GoT

Game of Thrones, Season 8 is already showng there. I'm trying to get the series pirated from there.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. Is this the one that keeps sending us email labeled "FW TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!!"? NT

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, n2doc.

[47of74]

15. I call dibs on ALL of this planet's beachfront property.