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Friday, December 9, 2011

The Kepler space telescope is a planet could have liquid water

The Kepler space observatory found in the planetary system Kepler-22, 600 light years, the first planet located in the "habitable zone" , an area in which, by its distance from its sun, may be liquid water, as announced NASA on Monday at a news conference.

Scientists at the Ames Research Center of NASA also announced that Kepler has identified 1,000 new "candidate" to planet , ten of which are similar in size to Earth and orbiting in the habitable zone of its star's solar system, that is, neither too close nor too far from a star. The planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest found by spacecraft orbiting in the "habitable zone"-the one where temperatures allow life - like a star the Earth. 55 planets are even larger than Jupiter, the largest in our solar system is larger than the Earth and still has not been determined whether it is rocky, gaseous or liquid , but said the deputy science team Ames Center, Natalie Batalha, "we are getting closer to finding a planet like Earth . " The Kepler had previously hinted at the existence of planets about the size of ours orbiting in "habitable zones" but this is the first time it finds. Scientists also updated the number of candidates for planets that since it began compiling the list in 2009 has increased to 2326. Of these, 207 are about the size of Earth and 680 are larger and are called "super-Earths".

Of the remainder, 1,181 are the size of Neptune, 203 are equivalent to the size of Jupiter and 55 are even larger than this planet, the largest in our solar system. Launched in March 2009, the Kepler mission is to collect data and evidence of planets orbiting around stars with average temperature conditions where liquid water can exist and therefore, life. Kepler detects planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars they observe to see whether they pass in front of their stars, a movement known as transit. But that's not enough and to verify signal of a planet is necessary for the observatory captures three transits to start the process to determine whether or not a possible planet.

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