http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45554786#.Tt1ZafKwW1c

 

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 newfound 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).

 

Full story in the link.

neat, also the link is broken for at least firefox

It makes me sad that I, barring some extremely rapid advances in technology, will never be able to visit a planet like this if we ever find one that is habitable. I personally think it would be incredible to get that chance, especially if there is life on said planet. Although at the same time I'm glad we can't, since humans would inevitably destroy the planet.

 

And yeah, the link is broken.

Fixed the link.

Great, now all we have to do is create a couple of mass relays to transport ourselves instantly from here to there.

It's sad that we will never get to see if life does in fact exist on that planet, but it's cool to hear that it is possible.

Great, now all we have to do is create a couple of mass relays to transport ourselves instantly from here to there.

Indeed. First stop is Mars :razz:

 

In all seriousness, there have been a lot of very cool discoveries in the past few months.

Great, now all we have to do is create a couple of mass relays to transport ourselves instantly from here to there.

Indeed. First stop is Mars :razz:

Why Mars? Why not Venus, it's closer. :P

 

I have to echo Skull's disappointment that we'll never get to see places like that in our lifetimes. Still, I'm hopeful that my android will be ready for consciousness transference before it's too late. :grin:

Great, now all we have to do is create a couple of mass relays to transport ourselves instantly from here to there.

Indeed. First stop is Mars :razz:

Why Mars? Why not Venus, it's closer. :P

In Mass Effect, the information that led humans to find the mass relay was found on Mars. But we already know that the mass relay is Pluto's moon Charon so we might as well just skip to that part.

Good, now we can trash Earth and move onto Kepler-22b.

 

I hope they rename it at some point. I like the greek mythology names, but I feel like "Kepler-22b" is ugly-modern. Not that we have any new gods we're worshiping these days [no I'm not suggesting we rename it "Flying Spaghetti Monster"

no I'm not suggesting we rename it "Flying Spaghetti Monster"

"Oh yeah, I live on planet Pasta in the FSM galaxy. How about you?"

 

"Well, my parents were from Earth, but we moved to Allah when I was like 3. It's pretty crazy. I had this friend who used to live on God, he said things were pretty insane there. He'd never seen a cat before."

 

(I don't know any Hindu gods I'm sorry.)

no I'm not suggesting we rename it "Flying Spaghetti Monster"

"Oh yeah, I live on planet Pasta in the FSM galaxy. How about you?"

 

"Well, my parents were from Earth, but we moved to Allah when I was like 3. It's pretty crazy. I had this friend who used to live on God, he said things were pretty insane there. He'd never seen a cat before."

 

(I don't know any Hindu gods I'm sorry.)

Here's my favorite Hindu god. (The only one I actually know) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva

 

We could also go Egyptian. Ra, Horus, Osiris, and the others.

I hope we are never able to reach or inhabit any of these planets, we'll just destroy their ecosystems anyways.

Good stuff. Pity we're quite a ways away from being able to get there :P

"The surest sign of intelligent life is that none of it has tried to contact us."

"The surest sign of intelligent life is that none of it has tried to contact us."

For all we know, their philosophers are saying the same thing.

600 light years away? Too bad that we can't even get close to the speed of light. It would take probably 40x 600 years to reach that planet.

Nice discovery, but I don't think it's worth even trying to focus on it at all since there is no way we'd be able to visit it at all. The last things humans need is another planet to put our problems on.

 

@God_Himself: I loved that quote. :lol:

It is funny how I read this topic then suddenly had an urge to watch Wall-E. I watched it, and now I realize why I wanted to watch it so bad.

im in mountain view, CA right now

 

los altos / surrounding area

 

nasa and lockheed have big bases here

 

^ irrelevant but eh

Surely by the time we are advanced enough to reach said planet we wil be advanced enough to be very eco friendly.

It's kind of overwhelming to think that even if we somehow managed to travel as fast as the speed of light it would take 25 generations just to get to this planet.

It's kind of overwhelming to think that even if we somehow managed to travel as fast as the speed of light it would take 25 generations just to get to this planet.

If the people going there would travel close to the speed of light very little time would pass for them. Of course it would take a long time for those staying on Earth.