Where are they?

Hey, you!  Do you ever leave comments on MR?


NASA's Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun.


The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87 times the radius of Earth. Kepler-20f is slightly larger than Earth, measuring 1.03 times its radius. Both planets reside in a five-planet system called Kepler-20, approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.


The link is here and for the pointer I thank Bernard Guerrero.


 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on December 20, 2011 11:07
No comments have been added yet.


Tyler Cowen's Blog

Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
Follow Tyler Cowen's blog with rss.