'Most Earth-like planet yet' spotted by Kepler // Have we finally found EARTH 2.0?

[Cidersomerset]

More drip drip from NASA and since the Catholic church announced their edict
about our 'Space Brothers' a few years ago I think we are not far off official
disclosure....LOL Each find over the past few years are getting a bit more
earth like.

http://socioecohistory.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/vatican_tied_mount_graham_observatory_launches_lucifer_telescope.jpg


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http://video.laptopmag.com/images/site/space-logo.png

Found! First Earth-Size Planet That Could Support Life

By Miriam Kramer, Staff Writer | April 17, 2014 02:01pm ET

vid on link...


http://www.space.com/25530-earthsize-exoplanet-kepler-186f-habitable-discovery.html


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http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.60.6/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png

17 April 2014 Last updated at 19:04
'Most Earth-like planet yet' spotted by KeplerRebecca Morelle
By Rebecca Morelle

Global science correspondent, BBC News

J2ohX-hOGpQ
vid from NASA link....


The most Earth-like planet yet has been discovered, scientists report in the journal
Science.The rocky planet, Kepler 186f, is close to the size of Earth and has the
potential to hold liquid water, which is critical for life, the team says.Nestled in the
Milky Way, it is part of a five-planet system that orbits around a cool dwarf star.It
was spotted by the Kepler telescope, which has found nearly 1,000 new worlds
since its launch in 2009.

"This is the smallest planet we've found so far in the habitable zone," said Prof
Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist from San Francisco State University, US.
San Francisco State University

Kepler 186f is about 500 light-years away from the Earth.The researchers estimate
that is a little bigger than our planet, with a radius that is about 10% larger than
ours. Because of its size, the team believes it is a rocky planet.

Prof Kane explained: "There seems to be a transition that occurs at about 1.5 times
the Earth's radius, such that if the planet is larger, then it starts to develop a very
substantial atmosphere very similar to what we see in the gas giant planets in our
own Solar System.

"And so anything less than 1.5 is probably more like a rocky planet that we are
familiar with."

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/74277000/jpg/_74277020_quintana3hr.jpg

Comparison between Earth and Kepler 186f Kepler 186f orbits a star that is smaller
and cooler than our Sun, but at a distance where water would be liquid Kepler 186f
travels around a small and cool star. Of the five planets in the system, its orbit is
furthest out and lasts about 130 days. The team believes that it has the potential to
hold water because with this orbital path it does not journey too close to its star for
the liquid to boil away or so far out that it would freeze. Scientists call this region
the "habitable zone".

Prof Kane said: "Even though it is orbiting a star which is very different from our
Sun, the planet itself - both in terms of size and the amount of energy it is
receiving from its star - is the most similar planet to our Earth that we've yet
discovered.

"That is great news in terms of looking for planets which might actually be similar
to the Earth, especially as the kind of star it does orbit - which is a very small star -
are amongst the most common in the galaxy.

"And if all of these very common small stars have lots of terrestrial-sized planets in
the habitable zone then that is very good news."

However, these small stars also tend to be more active than stars the size of the
Sun.So if Kepler 186f does have water - an essential ingredient for life - any
potential organisms would be bombarded with solar flares and radiation.
The hunt for planets outside of our own Solar System has made remarkable
advances in recent years.The first was found just 20 years ago; now, nearly 2,000
have been spotted - many by the Kepler telescope.However, a planet that is exactly
the same size as Earth, orbiting a star just like the Sun, at the same distance has
yet to be seen. Such a find will almost certainly come with future technologies. The
European Space Agency recently approved the development of an orbiting
telescope call Plato, which will be tuned specifically to detect true Earth analogues.

Follow Rebecca on Twitter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27054366

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http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/sitelogos/logo_mol.gif


Have we finally found EARTH 2.0? Astronomers discover first same-size planet in
habitable zone that could support alien life

The first Earth-sized world in the habitable zone of a star has been foundKepler-
186f is 1.1 times the size of Earth and orbits its star in 130 daysThe discovery was
made by a team of scientists using the Kepler telescopeIt could be the first planet
found outside our solar system with liquid waterAnd it is the most likely place for
alien life to exist that's been found so far

By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Published: 19:00, 17 April 2014 | Updated: 19:42, 17 April 2014

For decades astronomers have been searching for a world like our own outside the
solar system that could host alien life.And now astronomers have announced that
they have found one - a planet 1.1 times the size of Earth orbiting a star just 490
light years away.Called Kepler-186f, the planet is the first to be discovered with the
right conditions for liquid water to exist on its surface, meaning it could support
alien life as well.Astronomers have announced they have discovered a planet called
Kepler-186f, artist's illustration shown. It is the first Earth-sized planet outside out
solar system that has been discovered in the habitable zone of a star, which means
it could have both water and life on its surface

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/74277000/jpg/_74277018_quintana4hr.jpg

The find was made by a team of astronomers led by Elisa Quintana of the SETI
Institute at Nasa Ames Research Center, who pored through planetary data from
Nasa’s Kepler space telescope.To date, the telescope has found hundreds of
planets, but most are uninhabitable worlds that are either too large or orbit too
close to their host star to support life.The discovery of Kepler-186f, therefore, is a
big milestone in the field of planet hunting.It is the fifth and outermost world of the
planetary system around red dwarf star Kepler-186 and is almost certainly a rocky
planet.The find is significant because it is the first Earth-sized world we’ve found in
the habitable zone of a star.Habitable zones, also known as ‘Goldilocks zones’, are
regions around a star where the temperature is just right for water to form.
Earth, for example, sits almost bang in the middle of our sun’s habitable zone.
Although previously we have found exoplanets (worlds outside the solar system) in
these zones, none have been the same size as Earth. As our planet is known to
have life, it stands to reason that a similar planet may also be habitable.This could
make Kepler-186f the first world we’ve found that might host life as we know it.

WHAT IS A GOLDILOCKS ZONE?

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/17/article-2607079-1D2A495B00000578-218_620x346.jpg


This diagram shows how habitable zones work around stars

The Goldilocks zone, or habitable zone, is the belt around a star where
temperatures are ideal for liquid water to pool on a planet's surface.To determine
the location of a star's habitable zone, scientists have to first learn how much total
radiation it emits. They can calculate this by knowing the size and type of the
star.They can then estimate a region where it might not be too hot or too cold for
water to form. The diagram compares the planets of our inner solar system to
Kepler-186, a five-planet system about 490 light-years from Earth in the
constellation Cygnus. The five planets of Kepler-186 orbit a star classified as a M1
dwarf, measuring half the size and mass of the sun


bx4ERG6UJTE


This makes the discovery of a planet that could have water all the more important.
'Kepler 186f will likely provide our first opportunity to search for alien life beyond
the solar system.'The planet orbits an M-type dwarf star, one that is slightly
dimmer than our own sun, making its habitable zone hug it slightly tighter.
But Kepler-186f is on a slightly different orbit than Earth, taking 130 days to make
it around the star.This places it towards the edge of the habitable zone of Kepler-
186.The other four planets in the system have orbits lasting three to 21 days, making them inhospitable.

‘Kepler-186f is at the right distance from the star for water to form,’ Thomas
Barclay, a research scientist on the Kepler mission and another author on the paper
announcing the discovery of the planet, tells MailOnline.Barclay was involved in
modelling the planet and discerning what we think it could look like, as shown in
the artist’s impressions.‘We looked at the kind of light coming from the star, which
is slightly redder than our sun,’ he explains.‘So we tried to cover the planet in the
right colour light, so the planet looks slightly more orangey.‘We tried to work out
what sort of colour the ocean would be, so with less blue light the oceans would be
duller, not a bright blue like our own planet.‘Then we have the clouds and ice,
which are very reasonable assumptions to exist if there’s an atmosphere.‘These
would reflect the same colour as the star – our clouds are white because the sun is
white.‘So on Kepler-186f they would appear orangey and red.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/17/article-2607079-1D28446A00000578-219_634x724.jpg


This image of Kepler-186f is based on what the astronomers expect it might look
like. The plant life is yellow due to the manner in which it reflects light from the star
but the water and clouds would probably be a bit more orange than they are shown
here, according to Thomas Barclay

While it’s known the planet is in the habitable zone, astronomers can’t be sure with
absolute certainty it has water.Extrapolating on what we know from Earth,
however, Kepler-186f is a prime candidate for being a world with oceans and seas.
That would be dependent on it having an atmosphere, though.‘If we didn’t have an
atmosphere, we wouldn’t have liquid water,’ says Barclay.

‘It blankets us and traps heat.

WHAT IS KEPLER?

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/16/article-2325360-19CCF46A000005DC-941_634x494.jpg

The new discovery was made by chance as scientists scoured data from the Kepler
space telescope looking for evidence of moons rather than planetsThe Kepler space
telescope orbits the Sun 40 million miles (65 million kilometres) from Earth.

It is named after 17th Century astronomer Johannes Kepler.

It was launched in 2009 with the sole purpose of finding new stars and planets.

To date hundreds of planets have been confirmed with the telescope.

But there is still a lot of data to look through which could have more planets within it.

The telescope recently lost the functionality in two of its four 'reaction wheels' that
are used to point it at stars.This has left it lying adrift in space, but Nasa has plans
to re-purpose it for a new mission.‘The same would happen on Kepler-186f.’
And if there is plant life on this planet, Barclay says it would again be different to
what we have on Earth.‘We did think about what colour the plant life might be due
to photosynthesis.‘The best guess is they would be more yellow, due to the
different colour of the star.‘The plants would be yellow because it’s to do with the
energy coming in and being reflected.’Both Barclay and Howell say that this world is
probably more like a cousin to Earth than a direct twin.

It has similar characteristics but it orbits a different star.

With upcoming telescopes like Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, launching in
2018, we might be able to observe the atmospheres of planets like these closer to
us and find out if they have similar chemical compositions to our own.This would
definitively give us answers as to how habitable other worlds are.70 per cent of all
stars are so-called M-type stars, the same as the one Kepler-186f orbits.This means
that a lot of planets we find might also be in orbit around these stars.Discovering
that Earth-sized worlds can exist in the habitable zone around these stars,
therefore, is of huge importance.

‘There could be many of these planets closer by,’ explains Dr Howell.

‘If we can find those and subject them to study, we could see if they have
biosignatures in the atmosphere.

‘In the next 20 years I’d say there’s an 80 per cent chance we’ll find a definite
habitable planet in our vicinity.

‘If we look at all those planets we won’t see cities or coastlines or green fields, but I
think we’ll have a good shot of seeing water vapour and things that make us
believe they’re more like Earth.’

And there are still many planets lurking in the data collected by the Kepler space telescope.

The announcement of Kepler-186f is just a tantalising hint at the number of
habitable worlds that could be awaiting our discovery.

'One of the steps along the road to answering “Are we alone?” is finding worlds
such as Kepler-186f that look like the one planet that we know is inhabited,'
Barclay concludes


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2607079/Have-finally-EARTH-2-0-Astronomers-discover-planet-support-ALIEN-LIFE.html#ixzz2zB0tjUGC
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Anyone know what's the "goldilocks zone" for a Methane-Based world?

those pictures remind me a LOT of the recent titan photos.

lots of yellow soil/rock and green/grey liquid.

what do you guys think?
wrong temp for methane?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/4330/the-methane-habitable-zone

TITAN "the only moon in our solar sys w/ an atmosphere" BUT it's a methane based world.


Suppose, though, that life needn’t be constrained to a water-based chemistry; would we be able to recognize the signatures of such life and the habitats in which it lives? From one perspective, water seems such a good match for life because it may be the only match – no other liquid has the properties or abundance that water has. On the other hand there is another point of view that says there is more to the story, and that life simply works with whatever materials it has at hand. On Earth, that material is water, but on other planets it may be something else. Already we have discovered another world, in our Solar System, where rivers and lakes are made with a quite different liquid.

...

One point four billion kilometers from the Sun orbits Saturn, the majestic ringed planet. Saturn is a gaseous world with an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, and no discernible rocky surface below. However, among its retinue of icy moons is Titan, bigger than the planet Mercury and swathed in a dense cloak of hydrocarbon smog suspended in its nitrogen-rich atmosphere. It’s the only moon in the Solar System to have an atmosphere, and it has intrigued astronomers ever since Gerard Kuiper detected methane there in 1944.

When the joint NASA–ESA Cassini–Huygens mission arrived in the Saturnian system in 2004, the truth about Titan was revealed. Infrared cameras and radar on Cassini showed a world riven by black, oily rivers and lakes, whilst the Huygens probe plunged through the opaque atmosphere to land on a soggy floodplain, but not one damp with water. On Titan, where the temperature is just 94 degrees above absolute zero (–179 degrees Celsius) water is as solid as rock and liquid methane runs through the river valleys and into the high latitude polar lakes. Instead of a water cycle, Titan has a methane cycle, and a complex molecular soup formed from reactions in the upper atmosphere between ultraviolet radiation from the Sun and methane.

Suppose life could exist in an environment like this; it would be a whole new category of habitable planet, one where liquid methane replaces liquid water, consequently leading to an entirely different habitable zone, one that is farther out from a star than the liquid water zone.

McKay is already ahead of the game. Along with Ashley Gilliam of NASA Ames and the University of California, Santa Cruz, he published a paper in the journal Planetary and Space Science in April that describes where a world with temperatures suitable for liquid methane could be found around a red dwarf star.



@_@!
could it be colder than NASA thinks or am i just silly?




the liquid methane habitable zone around a cooler M4 type red dwarf would be even closer in, between 0.084 astronomical units and 0.23 astronomical units (12.6 million kilometers to 34.4 million kilometers.


Cold, methane-dominated worlds could easily exist around Sun-like stars, and Titan is proof of that. But there are advantages to finding these worlds around red dwarfs instead. First, their small orbital radii make them easier to detect, whether by transits or via radial velocity Doppler shifts. Second, Titan’s atmosphere is opaque to blue and ultraviolet light, but transparent to red and infrared light, and red dwarfs produce more of the latter than the former. If Titan orbited a red dwarf, more red light would seep through to its surface, warming the planet and extending the range of the liquid methane habitable zone. (Interestingly, a red giant, which is close to the endpoint in the life cycle of a Sun-like star, produces light of similar red wavelengths. When our Sun expands into a bloated red giant in about five billion years, engulfing all the planets up to Earth and possibly Mars, Titan may well reap the benefits – for a short while at least before the red giant puffs away to leave behind a white dwarf star.)

[Cidersomerset]

This article is from exactly a year ago more or less and shows
the grid of space they are searching. Its quite close to Lyra
relatively speaking which is one of the areas humans are supposed
to have come from,if I remember right without looking it up.....


Kepler Telescope Spots 3 New Planets In The 'Goldilocks Zone'

by Joe Palca

April 18, 2013 3:10 PM ET

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/04/18/milkyway-kepler-croberts-1-full_wide-5495d6d3f0a8780306ac2bf19352e8a498f1d70b-s40-c85.jpg

The small squares superimposed on this image of the Milky Way galaxy show where
in the sky the Kepler telescope is hunting for Earth-like planets. Kepler, which
launched in 2009, has identified more than 100 planets.

NASA


The small squares superimposed on this image of the Milky Way galaxy show where
in the sky the Kepler telescope is hunting for Earth-like planets. Kepler, which
launched in 2009, has identified more than 100 planets.

Astronomers have found three planets orbiting far-off stars that are close to Earth-
sized and in the "habitable zone": a distance from their suns that makes the
planets' surfaces neither too hot nor too cold, but just right.

One of the three planets orbits a star with the prosaic name Kepler-69.

"Kepler-69 is a sun-like star," says Thomas Barclay, a research scientist at the Bay
Area Environmental Research Institute who uses the Kepler space telescope, which
is on a mission to search for Earth-like planets. It finds planets by looking for tiny
dips in the light coming from a star. The dips come when a planet passes in front of
a star. By measuring the interval between dips, astronomers can figure out how
long it takes a planet to orbit its star.

"Back in the good old days, you'd find one or two crappy, Jupiter-like planets, and
you'd be on the cover of 'Time' magazine. But those days are long gone.
- Paul Butler, Carnegie Institution for Science

The planet around Kepler-69 is "around 70 percent bigger than Earth, so what we
call super-Earth-sized," says Barclay. "This represents the first super-Earth-sized
planet in the habitable zone of a star like our sun."

Twenty five years ago, if you had asked astronomers if there were planets around
other stars, they'd probably say maybe, but they'd admit they were just
speculating.

Boy, have times changed. In the past two decades, using some innovative
measurement techniques, astronomers have confirmed the existence of lots of
planets — 697, in fact — according to the Exoplanet Orbit Database.

"Back in the good old days, you'd find one or two crappy, Jupiter-like planets, and
you'd be on the cover of Time magazine. But those days are long gone," says Paul
Butler, a planet hunter at the Carnegie Institution for Science. Most new planets
barely elicit a yawn these days.

The Kepler mission is partly to blame for that. The spacecraft, which launched in
2009, has been wildly successful, having found more than 100 planets, most of
which have been the nasty Jupiter-sized planets Butler talks about. But the three
planets being announced today are different.

In addition to the one orbiting Kepler-69, there are two around Kepler-62 that are
even closer to Earth-sized. Kepler-62 is a dimmer star than Kepler-69, so the
planets' orbits must be closer to the star to keep them in the habitable zone. The
planets around Kepler-62 are described in the online edition of the journal Science.

William Borucki, an astronomer with the NASA Ames Research Center and the
principal investigator for Kepler, says the mission's goal is to find how many Earth
twins are out there.

"If they're frequent, then there may be lots of life throughout the galaxy," says
Borucki. "They may just be waiting for us to call and say, 'Hello, we'd like to join
the club.' Or if we don't find any, the answer may be just the opposite. Maybe we're
alone, there isn't anybody out there; there will never be a Star Trek because there's no place to go to."

And that's a sobering thought.


Audio on link...

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/18/177774505/kepler-telescope-spots-three-new-planets-in-the-goldilocks-zone

[aranuk]

Does anyone know where Kepler is at the moment?
Steve, maybe you know, you know lots of stuff.;)

Stan

[Cidersomerset]

Does anyone know where Kepler is at the moment?
Steve, maybe you know, you know lots of stuff.


Its orbiting around our sun Stan...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Kepler_orbit.png


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/NASA-KeplerSecondLight-K2-Explained-20131211.jpg/600px-NASA-KeplerSecondLight-K2-Explained-20131211.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)

Kepler orbits the sun,[42][43] which avoids Earth occultations, stray light,
and gravitational perturbations and torques inherent in an Earth orbit. The
photometer points to a field in the northern constellations of Cygnus, Lyra
and Draco, which is well out of the ecliptic plane, so that sunlight never enters
the photometer as the spacecraft orbits the Sun. (Kuiper belt objects and the
asteroid belt do not obscure the field of view.[32])

This is also the direction of the Solar System's motion around the center of the
galaxy. Thus, the stars which Kepler observes are roughly the same distance
from the galactic center as the Solar System, and also close to the galactic plane.
This fact is important if position in the galaxy is related to habitability, as
suggested by the Rare Earth hypothesis.

NASA has characterised Kepler's orbit as "Earth-trailing".[44] With an orbital
period of 372.5 days, Kepler slowly falls further behind Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

NASA Discovers 715 New Planets/Kepler Mission 2014

5o_frbSahSc

Published on 27 Feb 2014


Our galactic neighborhood just got a lot bigger. NASA on Wednesday
announced the discovery of 715 new planets, by far the biggest batch
of planets ever unveiled at once.By way of comparison, about 1,000
planets total had been identified in our galaxy before Wednesday.
Four of those planets are in what NASA calls the "habitable zone,"
meaning they have the makeup to potentially support life.The planets,
which orbit 305 different stars, were discovered by the Kepler space
telescope and were verified using a new technique that scientists
expect to make new planetary discoveries more frequent and more detailed.
Is this the ultimate space suit for Mars? Spotted: Mystery rock on Mars
"We've been able to open the bottleneck to access the mother lode and
deliver to you more than 20 times as many planets as has ever been found
and announced at once," said Jack Lissauer, a planetary scientist at NASA's
Ames Research Center in California.

Launched in March 2009, the Kepler space observatory was the first NASA
mission to find planets similar to Earth that are in, or near, habitable
zones -- defined as planets that are the right distance from a star for a
moderate temperature that might sustain liquid water.Tuesday's planets
all were verified using data from the first two years of Kepler's voyage,
meaning there may be many more to come.
"Kepler has really been a game-changer for our understanding of the incredible
diversity of planets and planetary systems in our galaxy," said Douglas Hudgins,
a scientist with NASA's astrophysics division.
The new technique is called "verification by multiplicity," and relies in part on the
logic of probability. Instead of searching blindly, the team focused on stars that the
technique suggests are likely to have more than one planet in their orbit.
NASA says 95% of the planets discovered by Kepler are smaller than Neptune,
which is four times as big as Earth.One of them is about twice the size of Earth
and orbits a star half the size of Earth's sun in a 30-day cycle.
The other three planets in habitable zones also are all roughly twice the size of Earth.
Scientists said the multiplicity technique is biased toward first discovering planets close
to their star and that, when further data comes in, they expect to find a higher percentage
of new planets that could potentially have a life-supporting climate like Earth's.
"The more we explore the more we find familiar traces of ourselves amongst the
stars that remind us of home," said Jason Rowe, a research scientist at the SETI
Institute in Mountain View, California, and co-leader of the research team.

[Lifebringer]

Of all the names to name a telescope at this day and age? Sheesh, who's the genius that thought this name up? Even the anagram could have been defined in different noun terms to not have it spell out. Just saying I wouldn't trust anything named Lucifer. Anybody know of any children named by that name, that have "come out alright growing up?

Just curious on the last question. I like this anagram better.

Large
Integral
Field
Extragalactic
Camera
Utility
Unite for
Research

LIFE CUUR has a ring to it.

[GuyFox]

I have an Idea:

Why don't we spend $1 Trillion or so, for a mission to go there.

If we are lucky, some frozen humans will be unfrozen, and find a remote and hostile place to live.

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/moixjwPlCw0/hqdefault.jpg

If they are very fortunate they might be able to eat so good rocky oysters.

Or maybe someone from there, will come or has come, to visit out own beautiful blue planet, which is now teaming with life. But we (and the makers of chemtrails) have put under threat.

[Cidersomerset]

Of all the names to name a telescope at this day and age? Sheesh, who's the genius that thought this name up? Even the anagram could have been defined in different noun terms to not have it spell out. Just saying I wouldn't trust anything named Lucifer. Anybody know of any children named by that name, that have "come out alright growing up?


I think Lucifer has had a bad rap and is why he is worshipped by the elites.....

Its all mumbo jumbo to me , but they believe it which gives its a meaning
to them and those who follow their ways....

0IgdzyMNfjw

[Cidersomerset]

I have an Idea:

Why don't we spend $1 Trillion or so, for a mission to go there.

If we are lucky, some frozen humans will be unfrozen, and find a remote and hostile place to live.

As far as I'm concerned they were here before us and probably had something
to do with our creation. We have probably been to the stars already if you give
the secret space programme any credence.

This is all about the eventual official disclosure to the mass's which seems to be
getting ever closer. It was not that long ago all this was science fiction speculation.
Interesting times .......


I just re watched this old vid , whether true or not more likely than Darwin or the
bible imo.....

The Origin of the Universe and Human Life According to the Plejaren (Pleiadians)

efvbhoXrCrk

[truth4me]

I believe your right...