By The Kepler mission consists of the Kepler spacecraft equipped with the Kepler telescope and its mission is to discover Earth-like planets within the Milky Way. The project is in motion for a couple of years and has already revealed astonishing discoveries regarding the existence of habitable planets.
One of its latest discoveries, Kepler 22b, was revealed Monday morning, depicting the first confirmed exoplanet that is orbiting a star similar to our Sun (Kepler 22). The star is a bit smaller and colder than our star, but this only led to some changed variables regarding the habitable zone around it.
The new discovered planet is said to be 2.4 times larger than the Earth, with unknown composition yet. It could be rocky, liquid or gaseous in composition, but additional calculations will take place in 2012, when the planet will be visible from the ground telescopes (such as Keck Observatory). The scientist declared that the planet orbits around its star in 290 and its orbit is quite similar to the one Earth has around our Sun. Calculations up to this point suggest that the temperature is also similar to ours, estimating around 72 degrees F on the surface.
The new software improvements made to the telescope boosted the discoveries of possible Earth-like planets, reaching a total of 2326. 55 of those are bigger than Jupiter, 203 have the size of Jupiter, 1181 look similar toNeptunein size, 680 are super Earth in size and 207 are similar to our home planet.
It seems that the Kepler mission is on its way to even bigger, more fascinating discoveries in the near future. At one point it is possible to finally find Earth’s twin, or maybe even more planets that can sustain life, increasing SETI’s chances of finding intelligent life among the stars of our galaxy. After that, new problems will emerge in attempting a transport or establishing communications, given that all those planets are several light-years away, outside our current reach.