Earth-Like Alien World Could Have Vast Ocean
A small, rocky planet could host liquid water on its surface, if it also contains a carbon-dioxide atmosphere, researchers say.
The planet, which scientists have dubbed kepler -62f, has a diameter 40 percent larger than that of Earth, and could contain oceans of water if its atmosphere keeps the planet warm.
"A high carbon-dioxide atmosphere is a reliable way to put liquid water on this planet," Aomawa Shields, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was involved in the new research, said at the Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago in June.
Melting ice sheets
Kepler-62 is a small, dim star two-thirds the size of the sun and only one-fifth as bright. Five planets orbit the star, which lies 1,200 light-years from the sun in the constellation Lyra. Only two of these planets lie in the habitable zone , the region around a star in which liquid water could lie on the surface of a planet.
Liquid water is thought to be a necessary ingredient for the evolution of life. Both planets are super-Earths — rocky exoplanets larger than Earth. At the time it was discovered, Kepler-62f was the most Earth-like planet known, in terms of size and orbit.
The other planet, Kepler-62f, lies at the inner edge of the habitable zone. The planet is about 60 percent larger than Earth. In modeling orbits, Shields and her colleagues were unable to find one that could sustain liquid water on its surface.
"[Kepler]-62e is likely too hot for liquid water," she said.
Kepler-62f lies farther from its sun — in fact, it is the farthest out of the five planets known to orbit the star, which it circles once every 267.3 Earth days. Scientists could only measure the radius of the planet. In order to estimate its mass, and thus its density and composition, they relied on the statistics of previous studies, and concluded it was likely either a rocky planet or one that hosted solid water, rather than a gas giant.
Shields put the planet into a simulation with an Earth-like rotation and a carbon-dioxide atmosphere. She then studied it with different obliquities — in other words, the angles at which it tilts in respect to the sun. In one case, the planet boasted an Earth-like obliquity of around 23 degrees, while in another, it had a sharper tilt of 60 degrees. Both scenarios resulted in the freezing of surface water, creating an icy snowman planet.
However, in the simulation of the planet with a tipped orbit, temperatures at the southern pole rose above freezing during the hemisphere's summer months.
"At its southern hemisphere summer, [the planet] gets more of the max effects," Shields said. "This could result in melting ice sheets."
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/ http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-kepler453b-circumbinary-exoplanet-03117.html A new planet that is much like earth has been discovered by NASA. Kepler-453 is interesting because it is considered similar to earth but at the same time having a radius 6.2 radius bigger then earths and a mass about 16 times smaller then its considerable "cousin". The planet is about 1,400 light years away from earth. Because of its gaseous nature it most likely cannot support human life of life in general. More discoveries are more likely going to be made bout this earth like planet.
A new age dawned upon us when man first set foot on the Moon. Though, recent articles have shown NASA covering up pictures by airbrushing them, in order to hide sensitive information from Apollo 17. Even missing tapes from Apollo 11 seemed a bit sketchy. Pictures of the Moon, tooken on the Moon itself and from space have been analyzed, and clearly shows figures that seem to stretch upward, casting a shadow upon the Moon's surface, like any building would do on Earth. The shadows casted on the Lunar's surface have been said to be "artifacts from digitally photographed software" but UFO and anomaly hunters respond by saying, "what sort of 'artifacts from the digital photography software' generate wedge-shaped structures with lights arranged in what appear perfect symmetrical order". I believe deeply that the structures could infect show alien like life on the Moon, if not, then why hasn't NASA returned to the moon since Apollo 17, and so secretive about the lost footage. What is the need for airbrushing photos and altering audio clips from the missions to the Moon?
