New Earth-Like Planet Discovered

{{Kepler-186f is almost exactly the same size as the Earth and has temperatures that are mild enough to allow liquid surface water . }}

Scientists have discovered a new planet which is extremely similar to Earth and could be home to extraterrestrial life. Kepler-186f is almost exactly the same size as the Earth and has temperatures that are mild enough to allow liquid surface water.

If the planet has lakes or oceans, scientists say it would increase the chances of extraterrestrial life evolving there. But anything living on the world may have to withstand extra large doses of radiation from its active sun.

The find is described in the journal Science as “a landmark on the road to discovering habitable planets”. Professor Fred Adams, from the University of Michigan in the US, said: “One of the most interesting questions in science is whether life can arise on other planets or, alternatively, if life on this planet is unique.

“The discovery of planets with Earth-like properties is one important link in the chain required to answer this question. And the discovery of the planet Kepler-186f is an important step toward finding a planet that is like our Earth.”

Kepler-186 is an “M-dwarf” star 795 light years away that is smaller and cooler than the Sun. It is orbited by a family of five known planets.

Kepler-186f, the latest to be discovered, is the outermost. Because its star is cooler than ours, it occupies a habitable zone closer in than the sun’s.

The planet was found by astronomers scouring the Sun’s neighbourhood of the Milky Way galaxy for potentially habitable worlds.

Using the American space agency Nasa’s Kepler space telescope, they measured the very tiny dimming that occurs when a planet crosses or “transits” in front of its star.

The transit information allowed them to calculate the planet’s size and estimate its mass and density. Kepler-186f was found to be just 0.1 times bigger than the Earth.

While habitable zone planets have been identified around other stars, none of them so closely match the Earth in size.

{Kepler-186f..the new planet discovered.}