Astronomers Spot Distant Planet in 'Habitable Zone' Agencia EFE
go to original June 2, 2014

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has discovered the first validated Earth-size planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a distant star, an area where liquid water might exist on its surface. The planet, Kepler-186f, is ten percent larger in size than Earth and orbits its parent star, Kepler-186, every 130 days. The star, located about 500 light-years from Earth, is classified as an M1 dwarf and is half the size and mass of our sun. (The Mars Underground)

NASA said that astronomers working with the Kepler Space Telescope have located the first Earth-sized planet within what is called the habitable zone: the right distance from a star to allow liquid water to pool on its surface.

Dubbed Kepler-186f, the planet is some 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

The exoplanet was first spotted with the Kepler Space Telescope and the find was confirmed by observations from the W.M. Keck and Gemini Observatories in Hawaii.

... The Kepler Space Telescope, which was launched in March 2009 and orbits the Sun at a distance of 149.5 million kilometers (92.89 million miles) from the Earth, has discovered 715 planets outside our solar system, NASA said in February.

Read the rest at La Prensa

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!