NASA announces Discovery of Earth 2.0

kepler-452b

Kepler-452 and the Earth's contrast chart, the kepler-452b volume is 1.6 times times the earth.

Latest: NASA: The Kepler Space Telescope confirmed the discovery of the first "habitable" planet with a similar size to the Earth, called Kepler 452b, the Earth 2.0, 1400 light-years from Earth, orbiting a star very similar to the sun. Kepler's next mission will begin in 2017: finding habitable planets around our nearby stars.

EARLIER: NASA said it would release a new discovery of the Kepler space Telescope at 12 o'clock in the evening Beijing time, suggesting it would be a big news: Astronauts may have discovered the "other Earth" that humans have dreamed of for thousands of years.

Since the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope in 2009, it has been committed to finding a terrestrial planet in the "habitable zone", which has now found more than 1000 terrestrial planets and more than 3,000 planetary candidates.

It is speculated that there is likely to be liquid water on the planet. Existing planetary search data show that since the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope in 2009, it has been working to find the Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" and has now discovered more than 1000 terrestrial planets and more than 3,000 planetary candidates.

Since the discovery of the first extrasolar planet in 1995, scientists have not made much progress in the observation of terrestrial planets in 21 years, and the Earth-sized exoplanets are in the category of science fiction before the extrasolar planets are discovered. Now, with advanced telescopes, scientists are observing the Earth-like planets they have been trying to find, and there are still 4661 of them in the candidate state, and no further confirmation is available.

However, NASA suggests that the latest discoveries may be the most similar to the planet so far (0.98 with the Earth's Similarity index).

Kepler space telescope

The Kepler Space Telescope (KEPLER), which is the first spacecraft in the world to detect terrestrial planets outside the solar system, was launched on March 6, 2009 in Eastern time by NASA's first probe into Earth-like planets. During a period of at least 3.5, the Kepler space telescope will observe about 100,000 stellar systems in the constellation Cygnus and Lyra.

Kepler space telescope

The Kepler space telescope is NASA's first exploration project to search for Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting solar-like stars, and its major milestone events have been: Liftoff, discovery of the first extrasolar planet, and the discovery of exoplanets with the smallest mass and diameter; The first 6 planetary systems found Discover the first planet orbiting two Suns and discover the most asteroids in the habitable zone, orbiting a solar-like star.

How did the extrasolar planets find them?

According to Wu Xuebing, the Kepler telescope's search for extrasolar planets is mainly achieved by observing the brightness of the stars, "equivalent to waiting, guarding hundreds of stars, staring at."

Planets will rotate around the star, blocking the stars, the Kepler telescope will see the brightness of the star changes, "The star's brightness will darken a little, if the planet is large, the effect of the brightness of the star is larger, because the area is a little more, conversely, if the planet small, brightness changes not so large, so it is not easy to observe. "he said.

In addition to the small changes in brightness, it is difficult to measure the size of the Earth-like extrasolar planets, but also a high demand for telescope measurement accuracy. Even if found, more telescope observations are needed to confirm.

In addition to size, the concept of "similar" to Earth includes whether it is as habitable as the Earth, and the Kepler telescope cannot analyze the composition of distant planets, so it can only be judged by the distance of the planet from the star to determine if there is water and whether it is suitable for life.

Immigration is still impossible.

"Too close, the temperature is high, too far, the temperature is relatively low, only like the Earth and the sun such a distance, it may be suitable for the existence of life, which is called ' habitable belt '. If it is in the habitable zone, it is more similar to the Earth's ecological environment. "Wu Xuebing said.

The Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, has so far confirmed more than 1000 extrasolar planets, as well as more than 3,000 planetary candidates, who have different sizes and distances, some in habitable zones. If the discovery of "Another Earth", does it mean that it can go into the real world from the sci-fi world? Can humans visit it?

Wu Xuebing says stars outside the solar system are too far away from humans. "How many years of light to go, is impossible to reach." So if it's practical to say, it's impossible to immigrate to the past. But for astronomy, it's also very meaningful for humans to actually find a small system such as Earth in the universe, which is very helpful for humans to understand the universe and learn about other stellar systems. "he said.

Future, or be able to visit the alien "brothers".

NASA announces Discovery of Earth 2.0