Slashdot Mirror


Kepler-186f: Most 'Earth-Like' Alien World Discovered

astroengine (1577233) writes "About 500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus lives a star, which, though smaller and redder than the sun, has a planet that may look awfully familiar. With a diameter just 10 percent bigger than Earth's, the newly found world is the first of its size found basking in the benign temperature region around a parent star where water, if it exists, could pool in liquid form (abstract). Scientists on the hunt for Earth's twin are focused on worlds that could support liquid surface water, which may be necessary to brew the chemistry of life. "Kepler-186f is significant because it is the first exoplanet that is the same temperature and the same size (well, ALMOST!) as the Earth," David Charbonneau, with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrote in an email to Discovery News. "Previously, the exoplanet most like Earth was Kepler-62f, but Kepler-186f is significantly smaller. Now we can point to a star and say, 'There lies an Earth-like planet.'""

5 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. Better leave now by pablo_max · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I do, I could be there in what, 25k years..round about?

    After all, Mericans are always saying to me "if ya don't like it, git'out".

    1. Re:Better leave now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That is assuming that the second/third wave colonists are giant douches that don't stop to pick up the first wave on their way...

  2. Shh by gatkinso · · Score: 4, Funny

    If we are quiet, maybe we'll get lucky and they won't notice us....

    --
    I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
  3. Re:But is it a class M planet? by Serenissima · · Score: 3, Funny

    *sniff* Smells ok to me.

    --
    Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. But light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
  4. Re:Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Earth-like depends on context. For me... if it has free wifi, it qualifies.