Science Talk

Kepler 22b...Earth 2?

Last week we talked about the planet that the Kepler telescope discovered to reside within the planetary habitable zone that allows for the existence of water in liquid form, which is essential to life as we know it.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that the average temperature on Kepler 22b is about 72 degrees Fahrenheit. It also rotates a star that is roughly the same size as our sun at about the same distance.

There's only one major difference that was found...it's about 2.5 times the size of Earth. You would think that wouldn't make much of a difference, but think of it this way. Because the weight of an object on any given planet depends on the relative mass and radius of the planet, your weight on Kepler 22b could be drastically different. Now I wouldn't go as far as to say that your weight would be 2.5 times your weight on Earth because your weight would directly depend on the mass of the planet (the amount of matter that makes up the planet) and inversely depend on the radius.

So in the event our Earth eventually comes to an end, we have a great backup plan...granted it'll take us 220 million years with the current methods of propulsion to get there...but I guess there's something to be said about looking towards the future.