Kepler 22b

               In class we talked about the Kepler space mission and what its doing and how it works.  Also, I did a report about the Kepler mission a couple years back when it was first launched in 2009.  Basically, the high resolution satellite camera “stares” at a grouping of thousands of stars, looking for the slightest deviations in one of the star’s luminosities.  This deviation in brightness suggests that something passed in front of that star.  By staring at this star group for a couple of years we are able to determine if one of these deviations has a definite period and therefore conclude that these deviations in brightness are due to orbiting planets, by determining some kind of normality.  Once we find planets, we focus in on these orbits and try to determine whether or not this planet could be an ‘earth-like’ planet, that is, if life could be sustained there.  One major criterion when analyzing these planets is determining whether or not the planet in question is habitable. That is, if the planet is in the ‘goldilocks zone’ or not.  The Goldilocks zone means that the planet is not too close to the star, and not too far from the star, but just right so that liquid water can exist on the surface of the planet.  The idea seems pretty sound, but three years after the March 7, 2009 launch, do we have anything to show for it?  In fact we do.  We have found a planet in the Goldilocks zone that has an orbital period of 290 days.  But is it truly realistic to assume that life may exist there?  Well, we have to analyze the star and use any information that we can affirm to try to describe this new planet: Kepler 22b.

            Kepler 22b could be just right for life, with an estimated 72 degrees Farenheit at the surface, a perfect day for us here on Earth.  At the same time, we’re not even sure it has a surface.  Also, this calculation takes into account some kind of atmosphere, which keeps heat in and warms the ‘surface.’  The relationships of the distance from the star and the size of the star are comparable to that of Earth, however Kepler 22b is estimated to be about 2.4 times larger than Earth.  Some scientists speculate that this could mean that Kepler 22b is more like our own Neptune: mostly gas and liquid with a small rocky core.  This would mean that the surface of Kepler 22b is in fact water, but water and only water.  A huge planet with nothing on the surface but oceans?  A proverbial water-world?  Yes.  And to discount the notion that life would not exist there because there is no landmass would be careless.  It’s definitely not out of the question that life could in fact live in such a water-world.

            Just how close to Earth conditions is Kepler 22b?  Well, out of 2,326 candidates observed so far by Kepler, only 139 of which are potentially habitable, Kepler 22b is the closest in size and temperature and the star in that system is the most comparable to our sun of all the stars found.  This could be the one.  But there’s a catch: Kepler 22b is about 600 light years away from us, so finding out what is on that planet first hand is out of the question.  That is, unless us scientists can figure something out of course.