The long-term viability of Earth as a hospitable planet for life has always been the subject of science-fiction, especially now that we’re knowingly destroying the planet. Even Pixar has thought on the subject with the dystopian-romance film “Wall-E.” Well, it would appear now that science has given science-fiction aficionados more fodder now with the discovery of an Earth-like planet.
According to The Huffington Post, NASA has discovered a planet that is currently being called “Kepler-22b.” The planet was discovered during the Kepler spacecraft mission, and the big thing about this discovery is that the planet was found in what is called the “habitable zone,” an area where the distance from a star has created temperatures which could allow for the existence of liquid water. Other similarities the planet has to ours: it’s temperature is around 72 degrees Fahrenheit and orbits its star, which is like our sun. The small differences are that Kepler 22b is 2.4 times our planet’s and a year on Kepler 22b is 290 days instead of our 365.
The planet is 600 light-years away from Earth, and, according to Kepler program scientist Douglas Hudgins, the discovery of the planet is a “major milestone” in finding “Earth’s twin.” “Kepler’s results continue to demonstrate the importance of NASA’s science missions, which aim to answer some of the biggest questions about our place in the universe,” said Hudgins in a statement.
What do you think about this news? Would you like to possibly live on Kepler 22b? And does this planet have oxygen? (I think that’s the bigger question here.) Leave your opinions below.
