Kepler 22b: An Earth Like Planet

Kepler 22b is an extrasolar planet which orbits around Kepler-22, another G-type star like our sun with 3% less mass and 2% less volume.

The planet is supposed to be 587 light years away from our Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. It has appeared many times before its official discovery by NASA using Kepler Space Telescope in the month of December 2011. Mass and surface are still unknown parameters, but the size of Kepler 22b is estimated to be twice as that of earth. Scientists predict the existence of gases and liquid in the outer shell which could be good news giving us a hope that we humans are not alone in this universe.

The planet orbits in a perfectly circular orbit with zero eccentricity in about 290 days around its star: Kepler-22. If the atmosphere is absent near the planet its equilibrium temperature will be 262 K (-11 C) compared to earth which has its equilibrium temperature as 255K (-18 C). The planet was located initially on 12 May 2009 after which it was again observed by Spitzer on 1 March 2010. The research for discovery continued when its third transit was observed by Kepler followed by the final official discovery of the planet on 1 October 2011.

The properties of this beautiful planet are almost identical to that of earth. Plus the life-supporting factors are also good enough which even helps us wonder that maybe we are not alone in this universe. The planet is being carried out by many present ongoing research and hopefully, we soon will discover something even cooler about it.