For life as we know it to exist elsewhere in the galaxy scientists posit the need for several key ingredients, such as a planet, energy and the building blocks of life.
One of the most important ingredients, however, is water in its liquid form.
Now, in a new batch of data released, NASA’s Kepler mission has announced the discovery of its first planet in the “habitable zone,” also known as the Goldilocks zone, the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.
Not too hot, not too cold.
Further observations made by astronomers at the University of Texas have confirmed Kepler-22b as a planet and not some other feature observed by Kepler.
Among the 1,000 new planet candidates announced, 10 are near the size of Earth and located in a habitable zone around their stars. Of most interest to astronomers is Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found in a habitable zone.
It’s about 2.4 times larger than Earth, and scientists do not yet know if it has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition.
The other striking thing about the new data released is simply how common Earth-like worlds are. Scientists have now identified 2,326 planet candidates, and of these 207 are approximately Earth-size, 680 are super Earth-size.
So many worlds. How I’d love to go to one.