Habitable Planets Probably Nearby March 18, 2014 | by Stephen Luntz Planets on which life might exist could be closer than we think, according to a new analysis of results from the Kepler Space Telescope. To put things in perspective, says Courtney Dressing If we scale the Milky Way Galaxy down to the size of the United States we find that the nearest Earthlike Planet isnt across the country, its not even across the state. In fact if we all were to take a field trip to New York City and we sit on one side of Central Park, wed find that the nearest Earth like planet would be a stroll across the park away. Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone are so common around M type (red dwarf) stars, and red dwarfs are so numerous around us, that the nearest planet with liquid water is probably right nearby, astronomically speaking. A best guess is just 13 light-years away, based on an analysis of the results of the Kepler findings. Kepler mainly focused on sun-like stars, but these have proved more prone to obscuring variations than expected so attention has turned to fainter objects. Its methodology means Kepler will miss many planets around nearby stars if their orbits do not cause them to cross the face of the star from Earth. However, it does provide us with a statistical sample from which we can draw conclusions about the frequency of planets of particular types. iflscience/space/habitable-planets-probably-nearby
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:18:09 +0000
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