The exoplanet dubbed Kepler-186f was first noticed by scientists victimization Nasa's Kepler telescope, consistent with research revealed Thursday within the United States of America journal Science.
The exoplanet, located some 500 light years from Earth, orbits in what's seen as the sweet spot around its star: not too shut and not too far, thus it might have liquid water, thought-about an important part to probably hosting life.
"The discovery of Kepler-186f could be a vital step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth," aforementioned Paul Hertz, Nasa's astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
"What makes this finding notably compelling is that this Earth-sized planet, one of 5 orbiting this star, that is cooler than the Sun, resides in a temperate region wherever water might exist in liquid form," aforesaid ELISA Quintana of the SETI Institute at Nasa's Ames research center in California, the lead author of the paper revealed in Science.
Kepler-186f is around 1.1-times the scale of Earth that researchers say is essential to predicting the composition of the surface and its atmosphere.
When planets are 1.5 times the scale of Earth or larger, many of them appear to draw in a thick hydrogen and helium layer that creates them begin to correspond gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn.
Kepler-186f is the fifth and outmost planet orbiting the Kepler-186 star, right on the far edge of that solar system's liveable zone, which means the surface temperature won't be heat enough to prevent water from cooling.
"However, it is additionally slightly larger than the earth, so the hope would be that this is able to lead to a thicker atmosphere that will give additional insulation," explained San Francisco State University astronomer Stephen Kane, another member of the team behind the invention.
Tracking 'transits'
Scientists victimization the Nasa's Johannes Kepler telescope first discovered it by tracking "transits" shadows that cross in front of the star.The finding was confirmed by observations from the W.M. Keck and Gemini Observatories.
"The discovery of planets with Earth-like properties is one necessary link within the chain required to answer" whether life will exist on alternative planets, aforesaid co-author Fred Adams, an astronomer at the University of Michigan.
"And the invention of the planet Kepler-186f is a very important step toward finding a planet that's like our Earth," he added.
But current technology doesn't allow astronomers to examine the heavenly body directly or do any analysis to work out its atmosphere or composition.
"Some people call these livable planets, that after all we've got no plan if they're," aforementioned Kane. "We merely understand that they're in the habitable zone, which is the best place to begin searching for habitable planets."
Because its star is so dim, Kepler-186f might not be appropriate for follow-up studies to work out its composition, explained Quintana.
"However, our analysis tells U.S.A. that we should always be ready to notice planets around bright stars which will be ideal targets to observe" with telescopes like Nasa's Webb orbiting telescope, presently under construction, she said.
Of nearly 1,800 planets detected over the past 20 years, only around 20 orbit among the questionable "habitable zone" and every one seem to be larger than Earth, that makes it more durable to inform whether or not they're gas giants.
The Johannes Kepler space telescope, launched in March 2009, observes some 150,000 stars, a few thousand of that are found to possess possible planets.
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