NASA locates more planets in area where there might be life

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A team of US astronomers announced today the discovery of eight new planets in an area where there might be life, including two that are closest to Earth have been discovered to date exoplanets.

 

The discovery brings to 1,000 the number of planets discovered thanks to the Kepler telescope, first used in 2009, reported the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) of Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institute in a statement.

 

"Most of these planets are very likely to be rocky like Earth," said lead study author CfA researcher Guillermo Torres, today presented the findings at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

 

The eight planets are in the area known as "Goldilocks (Goldilocks)" from their stars, ie that "orbit at a distance where liquid water can exist on the surface of the planet," said CfA.

 

 

 

Of the eight, the researchers identified two Earthlike, identified as Kepler and Kepler-438b-442b, which "orbiting red dwarf stars that are smaller and cooler than our sun."

 

Kepler-438b makes a complete circle its star every 35 days, has a diameter 12% larger than Earth and there is a 70% chance it's rocky, as calculated by the computer.

 

While Kepler-442b completes an orbit its star every 112 days, is about a third larger than Earth and has a 60% chance to be rocky.

 

To be in a habitable zone, an exoplanet must receive roughly the same amount of sunlight than Earth, to prevent water from evaporating or freezing, recalled the CfA.

 

In that sense, scientists estimate that the planet Kepler-442b has a 97% chance of being in the habitable zone of its star, because it receives about two thirds of the sunlight that gets Earth.

 

Kepler-438b, meanwhile, has about 40% more light than the Earth, which has a 70% chance of being in a habitable zone.

 

 

"We are not sure if any of the planets in our sample are truly livable. All we can say is they are promising candidates" to support life, said David Kipping, another CfA researchers who participated in the study.

 

For their calculations, said Torres, the team adopted "the broadest possible limits that can lead plausibly right conditions for life".

 

The distance to which are the two planets will investigate more deeply difficult, since Kepler-438b is 470 light years from Earth and Kepler-442b is 1,100 light years.

 

Before this discovery, the two planets similar to Earth they knew were Kepler-186f, which receives 32% of the sunlight that gets our planet; and Kepler-62f, which reaches 41% of the light that reaches the globe.