Kepler: The Hunt For Another Earth

As Earth's population peaks above 7 billion, the search for habitable plants becomes a topic of interest.  Could the human race actually sustain on a foreign planets millions of light years away?  Using light variation detection, The Kepler space telescope has discovered over 3500 confirmed planets with 167 promising sustainable Earth-like candidates.  A habitable prerequisite: the promising candidates must be located in an area called the habitable zone, which is a specific region around the parent star, or sun.  The habitable zone is distance from the parent star where water is likely to exist.  For Earth, this zone is 1 AU (astronomical unit,  149,597,870,700 m) from our Sun.

The Kepler mission has 2 high priority planets, Kepler 62e and Kepler 62f.  Not only are these planets located in the habitable zone of their suns, but their masses, gravitational pull, and orbit periods are extremely similar to Earth's. In fact, Kepler 62e's location from its Sun allow for cloud formation.   Researchers predict 62e has natural storms, similar to hurricanes and typhoons.  Natural storms suggest wind development, indicating a stable atmosphere. 

Unfortunately, these plants are located thousands of light years away and human travel is nearly impossible with today's technology.  But the discovery of a sustainable planet will lead to questions about other lifeforms and habitats and eventually, communication with other lifeforms.  Perhaps when the need for additional resources have become to great, planetary travel will become a reality.


For more information, visit http://kepler.nasa.gov/