No. This is not a review on one of the latest movie with the same title which is a story about the existence of a mirror Earth but rather an article about the latest news in the space research program for the search of a potential habitable planet in our universe.
Kepler mission has yet again discovered another candidate for an Earth-like exoplanet some 600 light years away. A more probable one and promises a great find for our
astronomers.
Based on the report, the planet designated as “Kepler-22b”, the first-ever planet in a habitable zone was spotted by the Kepler Space telescope outside of our solar system.
Classifying it as one of the “super-Earths” because of its enormous size – 2.4 times bigger than our own and revolves around its sun in 270 days (195 days shorter than we have).
Kepler-22b’s distance from its sun suggests an optimal temperature of 22 degrees centigrade which is enough for water to exist on the planet’s surface – something which is vital for planetary life to propagate.
Kepler-22b is one of the three planets that were confirmed globally by Astronomers as a candidate for human habitation yet the other two have smaller and cooler suns while K-22b has a solar source similar to our Helios.
Though the space telescope has unlocked more than 2,326 possible planets with 48 among them identified as having life sustaining capabilities, NASA may have to do additional monitoring of this recent planetary discovery. They still haven’t identified the surface properties of this one so as to validate the research data.
So then, are we looking at an interplanetary mission right now, or a proof for the
existence of extra terrestrial life?
