By Lee Ha-na
Kepler 22b is the first habitable planet to orbit a Sun-like star, discovered about 2 years ago by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. The finding was announced for the first time last Monday.
Located about 600 light years away, the planet is about 2.4 times wider than Earth, taking a space shuttle over 20 million years to travel to it. Kepler 22b circles a star, Kepler 22a, in a 290-day orbit, much like how Earth circles the sun. The most fascinating feature of Kepler 22b is its surface temperature of about 22℃, which is equivalent to a nice spring day on Earth. This type of climate is capable of supporting life.
Scientists announced that this Earth-like planet is the best candidate out of all celestial bodies discovered so far of hosting life. They believe the planet’s composition resembles that of Neptune, made up of mostly gas and liquid, due to its large size.
The spacecraft is part of the $600 million Kepler Mission to discover planets similar to Earth. Once scientists identify the planets, they verify whether or not the bodies are located in the Goldilocks Zone, which is the region where a planet similar to Earth orbits a star and can maintain liquid water, making it habitable. Planets outside of this zone cannot support life.
Since its launch in 2009, the Kepler space telescope has detected more than 2,000 possible planets among about 140,000 stars located within 3,000 light years from Earth in our Milky Way galaxy. Only about 139 of these planets have potential habitability.
Although knowledge of its composition remains unclear, Kepler 22b gives hope that there are planets out there that humans can study and travel to in the future.