Earthlike Planet Found Orbiting at Right Distance for Life
Article by Ker Than
On National Geographic News
I found this article very exciting because it is breaking news. NASA announced that an earthlike planet had been found. But it isn't just a normal planet; This planet is in the middle of the habitable zone of a solar system. The habitable zone of a solar system is the area in which any planets within that distance, could possibly sustain life. This new, earthlike planet is called Kepler-22B. This is exciting news because there are only two other known planets found that are in a habitable zone (not including earth). Both of them are at the very edge and have cooler stars, meaning they probably don't have life. NASA said that Kepler-22B is 2.4 times bigger than the size of earth. They are desperately trying to find out the mass of Kepler-22B. The mass of a planet can determine if it is a rocky world or a water world. NASA is planning to use a new high tech instrument in the Spanish Canary Islands to find out the mass of Kepler-22B. This new mass-measuring telescope is called HARPS North. It measures the planets doppler velocity very accurately.
I think this article the most interesting of all the articles I read for current events. It's amazing how with new technology we are able to see things hundreds of light years away. I chose this article because I had looked one day before and I did not see it. Today I looked and saw it found out it was a breaking news article. This article also looked fascinating from the title. I know this article is valid because it is on National Geographic, which is a trusted website. This article was also on Reuters, the NY Times and MSNBC as breaking news, which are all major news corporations. I found it inspiring how somewhere, trillions of light years, there might be other living things. These living things are probably completely different and probably will appear to us as being weird and odd if we ever see them.
This is a sketch of Keppler-22B
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