This makes you THINK…
8 new planets that could host aliens are examined in depth. They take a visual journey through some of the most promising exoplanets that have been found by powerful telescopes such as The Hubble. There has been an extra focus on these types of formations as they may have atmospheres and conditions that could be especially inhabitable by other organisms. (at least as far as our ability to understand them). Here is an intro to this incredible video:
One of eight new planets spied in distant solar systems has usurped the title of “most Earth-like alien world”, astronomers have said.
All eight were picked out by Nasa’s Kepler space telescope, taking its tally of such “exoplanets” past 1,000.
But only three sit safely within the “habitable zone” of their host star – and one in particular is rocky, like Earth, as well as only slightly warmer.
The find was revealed at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
The three potentially habitable planets join Kepler’s “hall of fame”, which now boasts eight fascinating planetary prospects.
And researchers say the most Earth-like of the new arrivals, known as Kepler 438b, is probably even more similar to our home than Kepler 186f – which previously looked to be our most likely twin.
At 12% larger than Earth, the new claimant is bigger than 186f but it is closer to our temperature, probably receiving just 40% more heat from its sun than we do from ours.
So if we could stand on the surface of 438b it may well be warmer than here, according to Dr Doug Caldwell from the Seti (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute in California.
“And it’s around a cooler [red dwarf] star… so your sky would look redder than ours does to us,” Dr Caldwell said.
That first-person encounter, however, is unlikely – both because the planet is 475 light-years away and because we still have essentially no idea what it’s made of.
Do you think exoplanets are the way to go in terms of our alien search efforts? Or perhaps something like the S.E.T.I. strategy? Maybe a combination of both.
