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Image Courtesy of NASA
In the Milky Way Galaxy, there are 3 types of stars that are best suited to contain planets within the "Goldilocks Zones". These are the zones around a star that are not too hot, not too cold but are just right to contain planets capable of retaining liquid water, an atmosphere and thus can potentially contain life as we know it. I am one of the Planet Hunters at Zooniverse. We analyze thousands of light curves from NASA's Transitting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to look for potential habitable planets. This is the first of many planets within the Star's habitable zone that will be discovered. Maddalena Environmental Inc. Al Maddalena  Image compliments of Spacenews.com
NASA is planning to test one method of asteroid trajectory change. It is an important test of the most likely method of changing the trajectory of an asteroid. It is the first time NASA will be testing a man-made method of such an asteroid path modification. This is exciting news for Planet-Hunters. I just got an email from Zooniverse describing 28 new planets added to the list of discovered planets by Kepler's K2 mission. These new discoveries have been confirmed by scientists who review and evaluate the work by us (Planet-Hunters) who search for transits among the thousands of light curves detected by the Kepler Space telescope. There are 9 planets in this list that are rocky (like Earth) with a radius less than twice the size of Earth. None have been identified within the habitable zones around their stars but some are very close and could harbour life. Here is a detailed plot of the planets showing their size relative to Earth, their orbital periods around their host star, the heat intensity of the host star,  The new planet discoveries range in size from about 2/3 the radius of Earth to twice radius of Neptune. Below is the scientific footnote produced from the data.
Congrats to All Planet Hunters! Maddalena Environmental Inc. Al Maddalena  Image Compliments of Astronomy Today
The NASA Kepler Space Telescope was launched in 2009 to peer at an area of space as big as a hand extended at arms length. It's mission was to detect possible planets orbiting their host star by a detecting minute drop in light intensity as the planet passed in front of the star. The mission was a resounding success resulting in the discovery of over 4,000 exoplanets, some of which are present within the habitable zones around their stars and therefore can possibly contain life. |
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