Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the “habitable zone” — the distance from a star where liquid water may flow on the face of an orbiting planet. The finding of Kepler-186f proves the presence of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of stars else than our sun.
While planets in the habitable zone had previously been discovered, they are all at least 40% larger in size than Earth, making comprehending their composition difficult. Kepler-186f is more similar to Earth.
“The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth …. Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind’s quest to find truly Earth-like worlds.”
Paul Hertz, NASA’s Astrophysics Division director
The size of Kepler-186f is known, but its mass and composition are unknown. Previous study, on the other hand, implies that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is most likely rocky.
Kepler-186f is located in the Kepler-186 system, around 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. Four partner planets orbit a star half the size and mass of our sun in the system. The star is a M dwarf, or red dwarf, a type of star that accounts for 70% of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
Kepler-186f cycles its star about once every 130 days and gets one-third of the energy that Earth receives from the sun, putting it closer to the boundary of the habitable zone. The brightness of Kepler-186f’s star at high noon is only as brilliant as our sun appears to us around an hour before nightfall. So, initial findings imply that life conditions capabilities seem promising.
“Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has”
Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
The quest for alien life continues. And, astronauts are still in the look for true Earth-twins, which are Earth-sized planets that orbit within the habitable zone of a sun-like star and measure their chemical compositions. The Kepler Space Telescope, which assessed the brightness of over 150,000 stars simultaneously and continuously, is NASA’s first mission capable of identifying Earth-size planets orbiting stars like our sun. Layman’s magazine will be waiting for any new findings to report.