Kepler finds "new Earth" - at last

[Frankymole]

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

Since Kepler launched in 2009, twelve planets less than twice the size of Earth have been discovered in the habitable zones of their stars.

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star.

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

 

[Golan2072]

This means that technologically we're getting closer and closer to discovering smaller rocky exoplanets in nearby places in the near future!

 

[aramis]

It's worth noting that all they know is diameter and year, and can extrapolate probable mass and orbital distance; they're literally guessing at anything past that for the world itself. They know how bright the star is, how massive, how big...

They don't know if it has an atmosphere. They don't know for a fact that it's a rocky world. They don't know its surface temps and albedo.

 

[flykiller]

et found home?

 

[Shadowrunner]

Also they can only detect planets on the same horizontal plane of orbit with one of the two main methods, either transit or radial velocity. It seems a bit barmy looking for planets 1000 light years away, when radial velocity can detect planets 11 light years away. My personal theory is that the UFO homeworld is not that far, it only took them about 2-3 years to turn up after we let off atomics...

 

[GamingGlen]

The ETs in charge are making sure we're looking and listening in the wrong places.