“The Kepler and K2 missions just keep on giving!” Harvard astrophysicist, David Latham told The Daily Galaxy. “Operations ended more than three years ago when the spacecraft ran out of fuel, but we continue to mine the data archives for celestial gems.”
“NASA’s search for life in the Universe is focused on so-called Habitable Zone planets, which are worlds that have the potential for liquid water oceans,” says Stephanie Olson at the University of Chicago. “But not all oceans are equally hospitable–and some oceans will be better places to live than others due to their global circulation patterns”.
“We have been observing this star for three years to look for periodic variations in its velocity,” explains Mathias Zechmeister, a researcher at the University of Göttingen. The observations showed that two planets are orbiting it, both of them similar to the planets in the inner part of the Solar System. They are just a little bigger than the Earth and are situated in the “inhabitable zone” where water can exist as a liquid.
Are Homo sapiens a one-off, genetic accident? Scientists have identified a group of planets outside our solar system where the same chemical conditions that may have led to life on Earth exist in what they call the Abiogenesis Zone. It’s also possible that if there is extraterrestrial life, that it has, or will, develop in a totally different way than it did on Earth.
“Our new algorithm helps to draw a more realistic picture of the exoplanet population in space,” says Michael Hippke of Germany’s Sonneberg Observatory about 18 previously undetected planets buried in data from the Kepler Space Telescope, one of which orbits its red dwarf star within the habitable zone. “This method constitutes a significant step forward, especially in the search for Earth-like planets.”
The Galaxy Report is our new daily email bringing you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
Yes, Sign Me Up for “The Galaxy Report”
The Search for Axions – “Detection Will Have Profound Implications”
Will We Image Planet Nine Within the Next Decade? 
NASA Scientists: On What the Perseverance Mars’ Rocks Return Samples Could Tell Us
Physicist Who Denies that Dark Matter Exists to What if Other Human Species Hadn’t Died Out –Planet Earth Report
In Search of Dark Energy –Probing 11-Billion Years of Cosmic History
Primordial Object the Age of the Universe to Jupiter’s Metallic Oceans –Last Week’s Top 5 Space & Science Headlines
Moore’s Law– Homo Sapiens May be the Milky Way’s First Intelligent Civilization
Does Any Civilization in the Universe Survive Climate Change to Stephen Hawking’s ‘Lost’ Nobel Prize
Colossal Cosmic Cold Front –Survived Over 1/3 the Age of the Universe (Weekend Feature)
Black Hole Enigma –Does the Event Horizon Exist?