The Search for Other Earths
NASA’s Kepler mission’s goal is to conclusively find other habitable planets in our galaxy.
If you are a Star Wars or Star Trek fan, like me, then you are aware that there seems to be an abundance of habitable planets loaded with humanoid species out there in the cosmos. NASA’s new Kepler mission, NASA Discovery mission # 10, is out to determine if that is the case. According to NASA, there is clear evidence that there are substantial numbers of three types of exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system. For our purposes of finding extraterrestrial life, it is important to find the fourth type of exoplanet, those that orbit in the “goldilocks” or habitable zone. It can be said that our Earth orbits in a zone like this. It isn’t too hot and isn’t too cold. We orbit at a distance from the Sun to allow for water to remain in …
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Philip Freda
3:43 pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Mr. Buckley, You are absolutely correct. The issue with finding rocky plants is that they would almost have to have a long "exoyear" to be considered habitable. This makes it very difficult to detect viable planets because observation would have to be turned to a particular star. The waiting game could be NASA's biggest obstacle. I highly suggest checking out Wikipedia's article (http://en.… more ›