NASA's Kepler discovers three potentially habitable planets

NASA's Kepler telescope has discovered three "super-Earth-size" exoplanets that are close enough to their stars to make them possibly suitable for water. Two of the planets (Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f) orbit a K2 dwarf estimated to be around 7 billion years old. Measuring at two-thirds the size of our sun, this cosmic lantern is orbited by a total of five planets, three of which are too close to be habitable for life. Kepler-69c, the biggest of this newly discovered trio is estimated to be 70 percent larger than Earth and takes 242 days to revolve around its sun-like star Kepler-69. While there's great excitement surrounding these new findings, this isn't the first time we've spotted a potentially habitable planet. A little over a year ago Kepler discovered Kepler-22b, an exoplanet about 600 light-years away from Earth believed to be covered in liquid. Like their predecessor, NASA has yet to determine if these newfound planets actually have water or a rocky composition. Until then, Ridley Scott might want to hold off on naming them as locations for his sequel to Prometheus.

Via: Wired

Source: NASA

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By: Unknown On 2:15 PM

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Samsung Galaxy S IV design, specs potentially leaked on Twitter (update: they're from Expansys)

Even as the secret of Samsung's Galaxy S IV has been handed off to some teenager, the @evleaks Twitter account (which has been reliable in the past) just posted a supposed pic of and specs for the phone. Along with what's clearly a rendering and potentially just a placeholder image of the phone, the specs list a Super AMOLED Full HD screen of unknown size, 16GB/32GB/64GB storage options with 2GB of RAM, a 13MP camera and Android 4.2 OS. A second image shows the same mockup lined up with previous Galaxy phones apparently confirming its status as the largest one yet, although that's not surprising given recent trends. Of course, given what we know about the lengths Samsung went to protect the design of the Galaxy S III (multiple designs, hand-delivered prototypes), you'll forgive us for reserving judgement until the real thing is shown off on March 14th.

Update: We've been informed that both renders are from e-tailer Expansys, which adds yet another dusting of salt to the reliability of these specs. The listing also throws in that rumored eye-based scrolling feature. Jeremy is in big trouble.

Update 2: Now evleaks has deleted the original tweets -- anyone else ready for 9 more days like this?

Source: evleaks (Twitter) (1), (2), Expansys

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By: Unknown On 6:55 PM

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Astronomers Discover Potentially Habitable Earth-Like Planet Very Near Us

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This is really exciting: an international team of astronomers has discovered that Tau Ceti, the closest single star like our Sun, has planets just like our solar system. But more importantly, one of these planets orbits in the habitable zone around the star.

Tau Ceti is very close to Earth. It's only 12 light-years away, which in cosmic terms is just around the corner. It's so close that we can see it with the naked eye at night.

The most exciting news is about the Earth-ish planet found in this solar system's goldilocks region, the circumstellar zone in which, theoretically, life could develop.

The artist's impression above shows its five planets with masses that range between two to six times the mass of Earth. The astronomers, who used more than six-thousand observations and three different instruments to gather the results, say that this is "the lowest-mass planetary system yet detected."

This is an important discovery, as it shows once again that almost every star has planets. According to UC Santa Cruz professor of astronomy and astrophysicist Steve Vogt—one of the authors of the study that is going to be published in the scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics—"this discovery is in keeping with our emerging view that virtually every star has planets, and that the galaxy must have many such potentially habitable Earth-sized planets."

The sightly bad news is that the universe seems to give rise to systems that have planets with orbits less than 100 days. According to Vogt, "this is quite unlike our own solar system, where there is nothing with an orbit inside that of Mercury. So our solar system is, in some sense, a bit of a freak and not the most typical kind of system that Nature cooks up."

Still, the evidence seems pretty overwhelming. With an estimated 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone, and millions and millions and galaxies in the universe, the statistical probability of planets full of life just like ours is overwhelming. We now just need to visit. And 12 light years away is a perfect place to start—just in our own neighborhood. Now we just need NASA to get a functional warp drive out the lab. Fast. [UCSC]

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By: Dilusha On 11:22 PM

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