ALIEN EARTH: RED SUN - Habitable world found 470 light years away

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/07/alien_earth_with_a_red_sun_discovered_470_lightyears_away/

'These are the planets we're looking for' - SETI boffin

7 Jan 2015 at 13:38, Lewis Page

The discovery of new planets likely to be able to support life along Earthly lines has been announced, with one of the most promising candidates for alien or human habitability located just 470 light-years away.

The new exoplanets have been discovered by analysis of data from the Kepler space telescope, and bear the tags Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b. Another six Earthlike worlds have also been identified, but these two are considered to be the most promising - and Kepler-438b the best of the lot. The new research was announced yesterday.


A small, red sun

Both worlds orbit red dwarf stars, smaller and less hot than our Sun. Kepler-438b has a 35-Earth-day year: Kepler-442b's year is 112 days long. With a diameter just 12 percent bigger than Earth, Kepler-438b has a 70-percent chance of being rocky, according to the team's calculations. Kepler-442b is about one-third larger than Earth, but still has a 60-percent chance of being rocky.

Kepler-438b gets about 40 per cent more heat from its red sun than Earth does from Sol. It is thought that there's roughly a 70 per cent chance that liquid water can exist on its surface, which is generally thought to be the basic requirement for the appearance of life along Earthly lines: or for a planet to be potentially habitable for humans, assuming a biosphere either local or imported to provide atmospheric oxygen. Kepler-438b lies just 470 light-years away from our solar system.

FULL story at link.

[Orrex]

1. Great Krypton!

[lpbk2713]

2. Now the question is ...

if we manage to go there, how long will it take us to fuck it up?

[JaneyVee]

3. Can we frack it?

Obviously that's the real question.

[Fred Sanders]

4. I hear estimates that Kepler 438b has mass much more than of Earth, what about the gravity?

[FSogol]

5. So, you are saying that basketball will be harder to play there?

[Fred Sanders]

6. Yes, a long par 3 would be 50 yards, if you could lift the club.

[Fumesucker]

7. With an orbital period of only 35 days the rotation could well be tidally locked to the star

Like the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth.

Baking on one side, freezing on the other.

[2naSalit]

8. Well Heck!

Let's git over there an' check it out... there has to be something we can exploit.



Actually, that's a really interesting story.