In another step toward finding Earth-like planets that may hold life, NASA says its Kepler space telescope has confirmed its first-ever planet in a habitable zone outside our solar system.
French astronomers earlier this year confirmed the first exoplanet to meet key requirements for sustaining life, but Kepler 22b, initially glimpsed in 2009, is the first the US space agency has been able to confirm.
Confirmation means that astronomers have seen it crossing in front of its star three times.
But it doesn't mean that astronomers know whether life actually exists there, simply that the conditions are right.
Such planets have the right distance from their star to support water, plus a suitable temperature and atmosphere to support life.
"We have now got good planet confirmation with Kepler 22b," Bill Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center, told reporters.
"We are certain that it is in the habitable zone, and if it has a surface it ought to have a nice temperature," he said.
Spinning around its star some 600 light years away, Kepler 22b is 2.4 times the size of the Earth and orbits its sun-like star every 290 days.
Scientists do not know, however, if the planet is rocky, gaseous or liquid.
The planet's first "transit", or star crossover, was captured shortly after NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft in March 2009.
NASA also announced that Kepler has uncovered 1000 more potential planets, twice the number it had previously been tracking, according to research being presented at a conference in California this week.
Kepler is NASA's first mission in search of Earth-like planets orbiting suns similar to ours.
It is equipped with the largest camera ever sent into space - a 95-megapixel array of charge-coupled devices - and is expected to continue sending information back to Earth until at least November 2012.
Kepler is searching for planets as small as Earth, including those orbiting stars in a warm, habitable zone where liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet.
The latest confirmed exoplanet that could support life brings the total number confirmed by global astronomers to three.
In addition to French astronomers' confirmed finding of Gliese 581d in May, Swiss astronomers reported in August that another planet, HD 85512 b, about 36 light years away seemed to be in the habitable zone of its star.
According to an online catalogue that indexes bodies outside our solar system by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, a total of 47 exoplanets and exomoons are potential habitable candidates.
The Habitable Exoplanets Catalogue (HEC), available online at http://phl.upr.edu, gives scientists "the ability to compare exoplanets from best to worst candidates for life," said principal investigator Abel Mendez.
Link to article: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/8385119/earth-like-planets-feature-in-new-survey
French astronomers earlier this year confirmed the first exoplanet to meet key requirements for sustaining life, but Kepler 22b, initially glimpsed in 2009, is the first the US space agency has been able to confirm.
Confirmation means that astronomers have seen it crossing in front of its star three times.
But it doesn't mean that astronomers know whether life actually exists there, simply that the conditions are right.
Such planets have the right distance from their star to support water, plus a suitable temperature and atmosphere to support life.
"We have now got good planet confirmation with Kepler 22b," Bill Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center, told reporters.
"We are certain that it is in the habitable zone, and if it has a surface it ought to have a nice temperature," he said.
Spinning around its star some 600 light years away, Kepler 22b is 2.4 times the size of the Earth and orbits its sun-like star every 290 days.
Scientists do not know, however, if the planet is rocky, gaseous or liquid.
The planet's first "transit", or star crossover, was captured shortly after NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft in March 2009.
NASA also announced that Kepler has uncovered 1000 more potential planets, twice the number it had previously been tracking, according to research being presented at a conference in California this week.
Kepler is NASA's first mission in search of Earth-like planets orbiting suns similar to ours.
It is equipped with the largest camera ever sent into space - a 95-megapixel array of charge-coupled devices - and is expected to continue sending information back to Earth until at least November 2012.
Kepler is searching for planets as small as Earth, including those orbiting stars in a warm, habitable zone where liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet.
The latest confirmed exoplanet that could support life brings the total number confirmed by global astronomers to three.
In addition to French astronomers' confirmed finding of Gliese 581d in May, Swiss astronomers reported in August that another planet, HD 85512 b, about 36 light years away seemed to be in the habitable zone of its star.
According to an online catalogue that indexes bodies outside our solar system by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, a total of 47 exoplanets and exomoons are potential habitable candidates.
The Habitable Exoplanets Catalogue (HEC), available online at http://phl.upr.edu, gives scientists "the ability to compare exoplanets from best to worst candidates for life," said principal investigator Abel Mendez.
Link to article: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/8385119/earth-like-planets-feature-in-new-survey
