Nearly Half of Sun-Like Stars May Have Earth-Like Planets

www.wired.com...

LONG BEACH, California – New estimates suggest that roughly 50 percent of sun-like stars could have planets the size of Earth orbiting in a place where liquid water might exist on their surface.

The results also indicate that almost all sun-like stars have a planetary system of some sort.

“If you could randomly travel to a star, it will have planets,” said astronomer Francois Fressin from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, during a press conference today here at the American Astronomical Society 2013 meeting.


The finding uses data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which is currently scanning 150,000 stars in the constellation Cygnus for evidence of planets. Astronomers analyzed this data using a program called Transiting ExoEarth Robust Reduction Algorithm (TERRA) to try and estimate the percentage of planets that Kepler is missing.



Kepler looks for the very tiny dimming of a star’s light that can be detected when an exoplanet passes in front of it, causing a mini eclipse. The telescope is good at detecting the dimming from a larger Jupiter-sized planet, but a tiny Earth-like planet will cause such a slight change that Kepler might miss it. TERRA found that Kepler had missed about 37 Earth-like planets in its data analysis, which means it’s missing about 25 percent of these worlds.

The findings suggested that smaller extrasolar planets form more frequently than larger ones, a result consistent with previous research. But TERRA found that the trend doesn’t hold true past a certain point. Planets twice the diameter of Earth are about as common as those that are Earth-sized or smaller, a result that astronomers hadn’t previously seen.

Ok, I had to post this. I know I have posted similar threads in the past but the news just keeps on coming thick and fast? How many now in a year? It amazes me that after all this time of looking into deep space the ansers may be right on our doorstep after all. Exciting times, well, for a nerd like me anyway!

I just had to say I love the photo above.....explains it quite well I thought.

Everytime you look up at night....imagine that?!

Capt

Earth-like is relative!

Wonder what is the MOST earth-like found (disclosed) so far, to date??

io9.com...

"Earth 2.0" among 29 confirmed and 2326 candidate worlds found by a team of astronomers using NASA's

They've confirmed its life-supporting! But 600 light years away - what Galaxy/Constellation?!

reply to post by minnow


How about this one? (So many to choose from!!!!)



www.boiseweekly.com...

Just what we wanted for Christmas: our long-lost twin.

An international team of scientists has discovered that an Earth-like planet has been located a scant 12 light years from us. The planet—located within what scientists call a "habitable zone"—is one of five planets near Tau Ceti, one of the closest and most Sun-like stars. Tau Ceti is visible to the naked eye in the evening sky.

"We are now glimpsing for the first time the secrets of our nearest companion stars and their previously hidden reservoirs of potentially habitable planets,” Carnegie Institution for Science's Paul Butler told Science Recorder. “This work presages the time when we will be able to directly see these planets, and search them for water, carbon dioxide, methane, and other signposts of life.”

The scientists said the mystery planet has a mass around five times that of Earth.

The international team of astronomers announced their findings after combining more than 6,000 observations from three different telescopes, according to Science Recorder.

Their work is published by Astronomy & Astrophysics.

12 light years away!!!!

Yes 12!!!

Originally posted by CaptainBeno
12 light years away!!!!

Yes 12!!!

That's quite a far distance, considering 1 light year is about 6 trillion miles, so you'd need to be traveling at the speed of light for 12 years to get there..

reply to post by eXia7


Yeah thanks for that! Sorry, I meant in relation to the rest of the finds.

Kinda on our back door step hey?!

Originally posted by CaptainBeno
reply to post by eXia7

 

Yeah thanks for that!

Sorry, I meant in relation to the rest of the finds.

Kinda on our back door step hey?!

Nah, I starred and flagged your thread, I actually appreciate bringing in the info, I love astronomy =]

Originally posted by CaptainBeno

How about this one? (So many to choose from!!!!)

Awesome, Capitan! I think..

I mean, I was expecting to see another "blue" planet with liquid water, oceans of it!

reply to post by minnow


HA! Maybe a cloudy day? Mmmm??

Originally posted by CaptainBeno
www.wired.com...

LONG BEACH, California – New estimates suggest that roughly 50 percent of sun-like stars could have planets the size of Earth orbiting in a place where liquid water might exist on their surface.

The results also indicate that almost all sun-like stars have a planetary system of some sort.

“If you could randomly travel to a star, it will have planets,” said astronomer Francois Fressin from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, during a press conference today here at the American Astronomical Society 2013 meeting.


The finding uses data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which is currently scanning 150,000 stars in the constellation Cygnus for evidence of planets. Astronomers analyzed this data using a program called Transiting ExoEarth Robust Reduction Algorithm (TERRA) to try and estimate the percentage of planets that Kepler is missing.

Kepler looks for the very tiny dimming of a star’s light that can be detected when an exoplanet passes in front of it, causing a mini eclipse. The telescope is good at detecting the dimming from a larger Jupiter-sized planet, but a tiny Earth-like planet will cause such a slight change that Kepler might miss it. TERRA found that Kepler had missed about 37 Earth-like planets in its data analysis, which means it’s missing about 25 percent of these worlds.

The findings suggested that smaller extrasolar planets form more frequently than larger ones, a result consistent with previous research. But TERRA found that the trend doesn’t hold true past a certain point. Planets twice the diameter of Earth are about as common as those that are Earth-sized or smaller, a result that astronomers hadn’t previously seen.

Ok, I had to post this. I know I have posted similar threads in the past but the news just keeps on coming thick and fast? How many now in a year? It amazes me that after all this time of looking into deep space the ansers may be right on our doorstep after all. Exciting times, well, for a nerd like me anyway!

Thanks for re-establishing this thread Captain! Kepler certainly has been a wonderful addition to our viewing and understanding Stars and the planets that rotate around them. Kepler's research has been described as 'the tip of the iceberg' since Kepler is only focused on extremely limited portion of Space. But the findings and knowledge are growing and exciting. This research will take a great deal of time to reveal more mysteries, especially in the hopes of finding a planet around a star/sun that resides in the 'goldie-locks' zone. (habital from an earth perspective. )

A nice piece to think, learn, investigate some more. Thanks, ID

Originally posted by minnow

They've confirmed its life-supporting! But 600 light years away - what Galaxy/Constellation?!

They DIDN'T confirm it's life-supporting they said it's in the habitable zone so could support life that's not the same!

guys those planets ( kepler 22b & tau ceti) are too big. 5 -6 earth mass is no good and wont be "earthlike" probably more like neptune.

2 earth mass or less is what we need. In the new kepler data they have found 4 planets that are less than twice the radius of earth and are located in the hz. I guess they will give details soon

May I also add this recent link on the beeb: (today)

www.bbc.co.uk...

Interesting