I have interests in many subjects. I just don’t have enough time in the day to get deeper into many of the subjects that captures my mind. One of my field of interest is science. Not too long ago, I blogged about the discovery of the Goldilocks Planet. This is a term used to describe planets that fall in a region which allows the planet to maintain liquid water on it’s surface. It’s also known as the Habitable Zone.
Water has been said to be the source of life. So if there’s water found on other planets, is it so hard to believe that there may be life on other planets? If there are, then what does that make us? Perhaps life on Earth is not that unique after all…
Scientists have discovered hundreds of planets in this Habitable Zone! They have found more solid proof on the existence of many other planets in the Universe which can support life. They are planets that are similar to Earth in almost all aspects. Scientists even talked about the possibility of the existence of alien life forms… Wow… Can you imagine there are other life forms outside of our planet? Amazing, isn’t it?
Tsem Rinpoche
NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone
By Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star’s habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new explanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5).
The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope’s total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation.These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700.
The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own — one which could conceivably harbor life, scientists said.
“We’re getting closer and closer to discovering the so-called ‘Goldilocks planet,’” Pete Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said during a press conference today. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets].
The new found planet in the habitable zone is called Kepler-22b. It is located about 600 light-years away, orbiting a sun-like star.
Kepler-22b’s radius is 2.4 times that of Earth, and the two planets have roughly similar temperatures. If the greenhouse effect operates there similarly to how it does on Earth, the average surface temperature on Kepler-22b would be 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius).
Hunting down alien planets
The $600 million Kepler observatory launched in March 2009 to hunt for Earth-size alien planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, might be able to exist.
Kepler detects alien planets using what’s called the “transit method.” It searches for tiny, telltale dips in a star’s brightness caused when a planet transits — or crosses in front of — the star from Earth’s perspective, blocking a fraction of the star’s light.
The finds graduate from “candidates” to full-fledged planets after follow-up observations confirm that they’re not false alarms. This process, which is usually done with large, ground-based telescopes, can take about a year.
The Kepler team released data from its first 13 months of operation back in February, announcing that the instrument had detected 1,235 planet candidates, including 54 in the habitable zone and 68 that are roughly Earth-size.
Of the total 2,326 candidate planets that Kepler has found to date, 207 are approximately Earth-size. More of them, 680, are a bit larger than our planet, falling into the “super-Earth” category. The total number of candidate planets in the habitable zones of their stars is now 48.
To date, just over two dozen of these potential exoplanets have been confirmed, but Kepler scientists have estimated that at least 80 percent of the instrument’s discoveries should end up being the real deal.
More discoveries to come
The newfound 1,094 planet candidates are the fruit of Kepler’s labors during its first 16 months of science work, from May 2009 to September 2010. And they won’t be the last of the prolific instrument’s discoveries.
“This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth’s twin,” Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.
Mission scientists still need to analyze data from the last two years and on into the future. Kepler will be making observations for a while yet to come; its nominal mission is set to end in November 2012, but the Kepler team is preparing a proposal to extend the instrument’s operations for another year or more.
Kepler’s finds should only get more exciting as time goes on, researchers say.
“We’re pushing down to smaller planets and longer orbital periods,” said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at Ames.
To flag a potential planet, the instrument generally needs to witness three transits. Planets that make three transits in just a few months must be pretty close to their parent stars; as a result, many of the alien worlds Kepler spotted early on have been blisteringly hot places that aren’t great candidates for harboring life as we know it.
Given more time, however, a wealth of more distantly orbiting — and perhaps more Earth-like — exoplanets should open up to Kepler. If intelligent aliens were studying our solar system with their own version of Kepler, after all, it would take them three years to detect our home planet.
“We are getting very close,” Batalha said. “We are homing in on the truly Earth-size, habitable planets.”
This undated handout artist rendering provided by NASA shows Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star’s habitable zone – the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. NASA has found the new planet outside our solar system that’s eerily similar to Earth in key aspects. Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a comfy 72 degrees. Its star could almost be a twin of our sun. It likely has water and land. (AP Photo/NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)
A diagram comparing our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first “habitable zone” planet discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission in an image released by NASA on December 5, 2011. TEUTERS/NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
MONFFETT FIELD, CA – DECEMBER 05: Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy Science team lead at NASA Ames Research Center speaks during a news conference about the newly discovered planet Kepler-22b during a news conference at the NASA Ames Research Center on December 5, 2011 in Moffett Field, California. Sceintists with NASA’s Kepler mission announced that they discovered a planet in the “habitable zone” where water could exist on the planet’s surface. The newly confirmed planet is being called Kepler-22b and is approximately 2.4 times the radius of earth and orbits a start similar to the earth’s sun (Photo by Justin Sillivan/Getty Images)
MOFFETT FIELD, CA – DECEMBER 05: Bill Borucki, Kepler Principal Investigator at NASA Ames Research Center speaks during a news conference about the newly discovered planet Kepler-22b during a news conference at the NASA Ames Research Center on December 5, 2011 in Moffett Field, California. Scientists with NASA’s Kepler mission announced that they discovered a planet in the “habitable zone” where water could exist on the planet’s surface. The newly confirmed planet is being called Kepler-22b and is approximately 2.4 times the radius of earth and orbits a star similar to the earth’s sun. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
MOFFETT FIELD, CA – DECEMBER 05: Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research looks at a graphic showing the newly discovered planet Kepler-22b during a news conference at the NASA Ames Research Center on December 5, 2011 in Moffett Field, California. Scientists with NASA’s Kepler mission announced that they discovered a planet in the “habitable zone” where water could exist on the planet’s surface. The newly confirmed planet is being called Kepler-22b and is approximately 2.4 times the radius of earth and orbits a star similar to the earth’s sun. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/ Getty Images)
Source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/nasa-telescope-confirms-alien-planet-habitable-zone-162005358.html
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NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world. We are not alone on earth afterall. Researchers discovered detectable sign of extra-terrestrial life in the atmosphere of a rocky planet . Wow It’s so exciting to imagine the possibilities, of potential habitability and may be suitable for life. Even with that discovery Earth remains a standout, and is still the only planet known to host life. Scientists concluded that the possibility of the existence of alien life forms. I am sure in future scientists will discover more new discoveries of planet in the habitable zone.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
An amazing discovery, a planet similar to earth, NASA Telescope has detected more than 1000 new alien planet candidates. They have confirmed that the planet’s size and habitable zone status planet outside our solar system that might have aliens living there. Its very unlikely that we are not alone. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like earth. Interesting read.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has discovered several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting. Interesting they have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the habitable zone . Wow… an Earth-sized world within the habitable range of its star, which could allow the presence of liquid water to exist. It has proven we are not alone in this universe where others being such as Aliens or UFO. I do believe definitely there are other unknown beings exist and other planets as well. Maybe in future , more discoveries.
Interesting read .
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
The Buddha cannot be wrong. Once again, the Buddhism found its parallel in science. But it took a long time for soem of the things Buddha said to be accepted. The Buddha already said 2500 years ago that there are worlds beyond our own. In fact, there are other planets with sentient beings and they each have their own intelligent live and some of us have probably taken rebirth in those planets before in the past. There’s also a chance that we will return to those locations again in a future rebirth. We will never know. I wonder if Shambala is really on another planet? Maybe its in the moon?
Bouddha himself said we can’t be alone in univers…
I do not like Alien and Outer Space. I believe that there are living beings out side this plane. I found them scary because I always have this fear that they will come back one day and made all mankind become their slaves. They will force us to make many pyramid, make many of their babies and then they kill all of us. Sorry I just cannot stop having this kind of fear everytime when I hear people talk about this topic. I don’t really want to meet them.
I’m so excited yet scared.. Excited because we gonna have NEW INTERESTING FRIENDS if they are friendly beings lah… scared because just like Helena and Rinpoche said, they might be very intereted in finding out why human got emotional feelings? They will TEST us and find out why we cry? Why we laugh? Why we get angry? Why we scared? Oh NO!
I have just read the news this morning about the discovery of the new “waterworld” planet (GJ1214b)by the US scientist. We always (ignorantly) think that we are the most superior beings on earth, boasting our advanced technology, would we be more humble and less self-centred if we know that there are beings out there who might be far more intelligent and advanced than us?
Outer Space, Planets, Aliens etc were always subjects I avoid and find them scary. In a way, the unknown is fearful.
Having read articles posted on Rinpoche’s blog, I have less resistance to learn of other habitable planets
and less fear of the unknown. As I learn more, other life forms is taught by the Buddhas as to the never ending cycle of rebirths and samsara.
Samsara is not only on earth, but elsewhere too. Must work towards getting out of samsara. The expanse of samsara is huge and entrapping.
Dear Rinpoche,
I always have the interest on Aliens and UFOs. I do believe there are other beings in the universe and other planets. What i do believe is they are also very curious on us (human) that is why they always visit our planet to study us hehehe…What makes me think that they are curious on us it is because in our world we have “feelings”, we love, we hate, we happy, we sad and so on and i think they don’t. That is what makes the earth so unique i guess.
Agree with Helena ^^, I do believe aliens and ufo are exist, and they are much more smarter than human, is just the matter of time WHEN they wanted to be “FRIENDS” with human ; )And now they are near! What i worried about IF they have found a Alien, this being definitely will go through an experiment. Sighh ….
*This all is just a thought of mine 😉
Been waiting for you Kepler-22, a huge one!! ^^,
Thank You Rinpoche ^^,
If Kepler-22b is 2.4x the size of Earth, it would mean the beings residing in that planet will be twice our earthling size and if they ever come to earth, they will be known as Giants to us. Remember in days gone by, the Buddha had said the life span of human can reach up to 120 thousands years and their height are much more higher than we are now. So, don’t be surprised to know that there are other beings out there like we are except some are highly intelligent while others may be like us….struggling to explore the Universe with our puny space ships. Perhaps someday in the future, we are able to explore those planets beyond our Horizon; whether they are friendly or aggressive will one day be known too.
Thanks to Tsem Rinpoche for putting up this section for those who believe and have interest to go beyond the horizon where no man has ever gone before.
wow, the Kepler-22b is 2.4x the size of our earth, and from the picture it looks very similar to earth. with this discovery of the habitable planet, i believe there will be more other habitable planet will come in the radar, and many life form or alien life will also be discover as well. This is truly a testament of what Lord Buddha had told that there are other life form in the whole galaxy.
I am always fascinated and believe that there are other life beyond our own solar system. Believe it or not, the truth is out there waiting to be discover and uncover. Thank for for this sharing Rinpoche.
Don’t take the painting too seriously–it’s just an artist’s impression. We really know very little about this planet, e.g. whether it has water.