It has found many other potentially habitable worlds since Keplerb. Although the distance of these worlds makes it difficult to perform follow-ups, further work is possible using ground-based telescopes or future space observatories.
Potential telescopes that could examine Keplerb include the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled to launch in or the ground-based European Extremely Large Telescope or E-ELT; first light, or when the telescope first starts test observations, is targeted for Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more!
And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community space. Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space. She is the author or co-author of several books on space exploration. Elizabeth holds a Ph. The habitable zone is the region in which liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Liquid water is a key ingredient to life, so planets found within this zone are more likely to be habitable worlds.
However, planets must also be the right size, and Keplerb is too big. Launched in , the Kepler spacecraft measures the light output of , stars simultaneously. The data from each star is then analyzed in order to look for periodic drops in the light curve being emitted. These drops in brightness could indicate the presence of an orbiting planet passing in front of its host star, blocking some of its light.
While some heat is necessary for metabolism to occur and therefore for life to exist, too much of it can easily denature proteins and actually cause it to be even more difficult for life to exist. On top of all of this, temperature and pressure, but the two are relative decides what phase a substance will be in — solid, liquid or gas — and since it has already been stated that a liquid medium is one of the necessities for life, temperature clearly helps determine whether or not a planet could give rise to life.
A totally white planet has an albedo of 1, meaning all light that hits the planet is reflected back into space, and a totally black planet has an albedo of 0, where all light is absorbed by the planet. The idea of albedo is simple — the whiter the object, the more reflective it is.
All planets lie somewhere on this range, and generally, as the albedo of a planet approaches 1, the planet will be getting colder, as less and less light is absorbed by the surface.
The issue in this category is that it is very difficult for us to accurately determine the temperature or albedo of an exoplanet so far away, although we do have estimates. Using this value and setting it equal to the equation:. For Keplerb to have this temperature of K, a fairly moderate temperature probably capable of allowing for life, the albedo has to be 0.
So, based on this temperature estimate, Keplerb is a very dark planet that absorbs most of the light that comes across it. Keep in mind that this albedo is the result of an estimated temperature, so we cannot be sure that it accurately depicts conditions on Keplerb.
It is worth noting that planets with lower albedos do not reflect a lot of light, so they are difficult to find via direct imaging. However, most exoplanets are discovered using indirect techniques, and Keplerb was no exception. The transit detection method is one of the more popular methods for detecting exoplanets, as it is conducted by measuring luminosities of stars and looking for temporary dips. This is how Keplerb was discovered — after the Kepler spacecraft detected the third uniform, temporary, dip in the luminosity of the star Kepler, the planet Keplerb was confirmed to exist.
The luminosity of the star is only lowered when its planet is passing in front of it. In a normal solar system where the host star is very large compared to its orbiting planets, this value should come out to be very small. This is because the change in emitted light from the star is extremely small, and as a result it is difficult to detect and could occur from any object passing the star.
This was exactly the case with Keplerb, as its transit only caused a 0. This makes the atmosphere if any surrounding the planet available for observational analysis. Is there currently any sign that Keplerb has an atmosphere, and if so, what is known about it? Boss: Exoplanetary atmospheres are studied by how the light of the host star is absorbed by passing through the planet's atmosphere.
An atmosphere on Keplerb has not been detected to my knowledge, and it is unlikely to be detected with any current instrumentation. And what sort of characteristics might we be able to discover, if present? Boss: Kepler may be too far away for even the yet to be launched James Webb Space Telescope to say anything about the atmosphere of its planet. We need to find planets that are much closer to Earth for us to do a proper follow-up.
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