2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life

[ScienceRocks]

2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | July 18, 2016 03:57pm ET
2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life

NASA's Kepler space telescope has spotted four possibly rocky alien planets orbiting the same star, and two of these newfound worlds might be capable of supporting life.

The four exoplanets circle a red dwarf — a star smaller and dimmer than the sun — called K2-72, which lies 181 light-years from Earth in the Aquarius constellation. All four worlds are between 20 percent and 50 percent wider than Earth, making them good candidates to be rocky, discovery team members said.

Two of the four planets, known as K2-72c and K2-72e, appear to be in the star's "habitable zone" — that just-right range of distances at which liquid water can exist on a world's surface, the scientists added.

Wahoo,,,Kepler handicap mission just found two great planets to add to our count!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Because K2-72 is a red dwarf, its habitable zone is much closer in than that of the sun. For example, K2-72c completes one orbit every 15 Earth days, yet it is likely just 10 percent warmer than our planet. K2-72e has a 24-Earth-day year, and it's about 6 percent colder than Earth, the scientists said. (All four newfound planets complete an orbit in 24 Earth days or less, making them closer to K2-72 than Mercury is to the sun.)

The K2-72 planets are among 104 alien worlds recently discovered by the Kepler telescope during its bounce-back K2 mission. Study leader Ian Crossfield, of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, first announced this haul in January, during a presentation at the 227th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Kissimmee, Florida, and the results were just published online in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

 

[Weatherman2020]

2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | July 18, 2016 03:57pm ET
2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life

NASA's Kepler space telescope has spotted four possibly rocky alien planets orbiting the same star, and two of these newfound worlds might be capable of supporting life.

The four exoplanets circle a red dwarf — a star smaller and dimmer than the sun — called K2-72, which lies 181 light-years from Earth in the Aquarius constellation. All four worlds are between 20 percent and 50 percent wider than Earth, making them good candidates to be rocky, discovery team members said.

Two of the four planets, known as K2-72c and K2-72e, appear to be in the star's "habitable zone" — that just-right range of distances at which liquid water can exist on a world's surface, the scientists added.

Wahoo,,,Kepler handicap mission just found two great planets to add to our count!

We nominate you to leave tonight to find out.

 

[ScienceRocks]

2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | July 18, 2016 03:57pm ET
2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life

NASA's Kepler space telescope has spotted four possibly rocky alien planets orbiting the same star, and two of these newfound worlds might be capable of supporting life.

The four exoplanets circle a red dwarf — a star smaller and dimmer than the sun — called K2-72, which lies 181 light-years from Earth in the Aquarius constellation. All four worlds are between 20 percent and 50 percent wider than Earth, making them good candidates to be rocky, discovery team members said.

Two of the four planets, known as K2-72c and K2-72e, appear to be in the star's "habitable zone" — that just-right range of distances at which liquid water can exist on a world's surface, the scientists added.

Wahoo,,,Kepler handicap mission just found two great planets to add to our count!

We nominate you to leave tonight to find out.

I wish. The life there is probably greatly more compassionate and intelligent.

 

[Weatherman2020]

2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | July 18, 2016 03:57pm ET
2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life

NASA's Kepler space telescope has spotted four possibly rocky alien planets orbiting the same star, and two of these newfound worlds might be capable of supporting life.

The four exoplanets circle a red dwarf — a star smaller and dimmer than the sun — called K2-72, which lies 181 light-years from Earth in the Aquarius constellation. All four worlds are between 20 percent and 50 percent wider than Earth, making them good candidates to be rocky, discovery team members said.

Two of the four planets, known as K2-72c and K2-72e, appear to be in the star's "habitable zone" — that just-right range of distances at which liquid water can exist on a world's surface, the scientists added.

Wahoo,,,Kepler handicap mission just found two great planets to add to our count!

We nominate you to leave tonight to find out.

I wish. The life there is probably greatly more compassionate and intelligent.

 

[ScienceRocks]

2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | July 18, 2016 03:57pm ET
2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life

NASA's Kepler space telescope has spotted four possibly rocky alien planets orbiting the same star, and two of these newfound worlds might be capable of supporting life.

The four exoplanets circle a red dwarf — a star smaller and dimmer than the sun — called K2-72, which lies 181 light-years from Earth in the Aquarius constellation. All four worlds are between 20 percent and 50 percent wider than Earth, making them good candidates to be rocky, discovery team members said.

Two of the four planets, known as K2-72c and K2-72e, appear to be in the star's "habitable zone" — that just-right range of distances at which liquid water can exist on a world's surface, the scientists added.

Wahoo,,,Kepler handicap mission just found two great planets to add to our count!

We nominate you to leave tonight to find out.

I wish. The life there is probably greatly more compassionate and intelligent.

View attachment 82039

People like you have the same backwards mindset of the islamic extremist that this nation is at war with. Backwards and anti-education.

 

[ScienceRocks]

197 Candidates and 104 Validated Planets in K2's First Five Fields
(Submitted on 18 Jul 2016)
We present 197 planet candidates discovered using data from the first year of the NASA K2 mission (Campaigns 0-4), along with the results of an intensive program of photometric analyses, stellar spectroscopy, high-resolution imaging, and statistical validation. We distill these candidates into sets of 104 validated planets (57 in multi-planet systems), 30 false positives, and 63 remaining candidates. Our validated systems span a range of properties, with median values of R_P = 2.3 R_E, P=8.6 d, Tef = 5300 K, and Kp=12.7 mag. Stellar spectroscopy provides precise stellar and planetary parameters for most of these systems. We show that K2 has increased by 30% the number of small planets known to orbit moderately bright stars (1-4 R_E, Kp=9-13 mag). Of particular interest are 37 planets smaller than 2 R_E, 15 orbiting stars brighter than Kp=11.5, five receiving Earth-like irradiation levels, and several multi-planet systems -- including four planets orbiting the M dwarf K2-72 near mean-motion resonances. By quantifying the likelihood that each candidate is a planet we demonstrate that our candidate sample has an overall false positive rate of 15-30%, with rates substantially lower for small candidates (< 2 R_E) and larger for candidates with radii > 8 R_E and/or with P < 3 d. Extrapolation of the current planetary yield suggests that K2 will discover between 500-1000 planets in its planned four-year mission -- assuming sufficient follow-up resources are available. Efficient observing and analysis, together with an organized and coherent follow-up strategy, is essential to maximize the efficacy of planet-validation efforts for K2, TESS, and future large-scale surveys.

[1607.05263] 197 Candidates and 104 Validated Planets in K2's First Five Fields

 

[defcon4]

We nominate you to leave tonight to find out.

He needs to take a shovel and a wheelbarrow and start on the infrastructure before the scientists get there....

 

[sealybobo]

2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | July 18, 2016 03:57pm ET
2 Newfound Alien Planets May Be Capable of Supporting Life

NASA's Kepler space telescope has spotted four possibly rocky alien planets orbiting the same star, and two of these newfound worlds might be capable of supporting life.

The four exoplanets circle a red dwarf — a star smaller and dimmer than the sun — called K2-72, which lies 181 light-years from Earth in the Aquarius constellation. All four worlds are between 20 percent and 50 percent wider than Earth, making them good candidates to be rocky, discovery team members said.

Two of the four planets, known as K2-72c and K2-72e, appear to be in the star's "habitable zone" — that just-right range of distances at which liquid water can exist on a world's surface, the scientists added.

Wahoo,,,Kepler handicap mission just found two great planets to add to our count!

Remember that we need to find a planet younger than ours. Otherwise why bother?

And a planet that is 100 light years away may not even actually be there. It could have gone extinct a long time ago and we just don't know it yet. What we are seeing is 100 years into the past when we look at that star

 

[ScienceRocks]

1. Red dwarf can last far longer then a G class star like ours...

So long is the process, in fact, that the lifespan of a red dwarf can be far longer than the expected age of the universe, thought to be about 14 billion years. More massive stars burn through their fuel much faster and thus have shorter lifespans, sometimes just a few million years, so the lower the mass of a red dwarf the longer it will live. A red dwarf with a tenth of the Sun’s mass will continue burning fuel for 10 trillion years. Therefore, there are no red dwarfs that we know of in the universe that are nearing the end of their lives, so we will likely never observe what happens in the last throes of their lives.

Red Dwarfs: The fascinating stars that live for trillions of years | Space Facts – Astronomy, the Solar System & Outer Space | All About Space Magazine

This planet will be habital long after the earth is circling the dead remains of our own sun.


2. 181 years? Do you realize the extreme odds of such burning out during this time frame even if it was a O or F class star? Not even to say the odds of such occurring with the M class that this certainly is.

 

[ScienceRocks]

We nominate you to leave tonight to find out.

He needs to take a shovel and a wheelbarrow and start on the infrastructure before the scientists get there....

Well, shit, that is just common sense when building a colony on another world. duh