The chances finding alien life werw given a boost after Nasa revealed it had found evidence of more than 1,200 planets in orbit far distant stars. 54 may be able to support life!
Astronomers using the Kepler space telescope have found a system of six planets orbiting a rouglly Sun size star named Kepler 11 -- is similar to our own sun 2,000 light years away. All its planets are in orbit too close to the star to hold life as we know it.It validates a powerful new mathod to measure the masses of planets.The five inner planets in the Kepler-11 system range in size from 2.3 to 13.5 times the mass of the earth. They orbit within a region that would fit inside Mercury's orbit of the Sun.
It boggles the mind. For the first time inhuman history, we have a pool of potentially rockey habitable- zone planeta.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first big step forward to answering the ancient question, How coommon are other earths?