Astronomers Scope Out ‘Earth 2.0’

Posted on Dec 5, 2011

Wikimedia Commons / NASA

This illustration from NASA shows the Kepler telescope at work in space.

Did you know that astronomers have found a bunch of potential “Earth 2.0” candidate planets scattered around the universe? More than 2,000 in fact, and one in particular, which NASA dubbed Kepler 22-b after the supercharged telescope that spotted it, spins around its own sun just 600 light-years away.  —KA

BBC:

Kepler 22-b lies at a distance from its sun about 15% less than the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. However, its sun puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at its balmy temperature that would support the existence of liquid water.

[...] The results were announced at the Kepler telescope’s first science conference, alongside the staggering number of new candidate planets. The total number of candidates spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 - of which 207 are approximately Earth-sized.

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