Discovery of two new planets capable of harboring a ... - 20minutes.fr

Kepler space telescope NASA has detected two extrasolar planets located in a “habitable zone” in relation to their star, and therefore likely to harbor some form of life, reported Thursday that U.S. scientists.

Both planets designated under the names of Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, are orbiting the star Kepler-62 at 1,200 light years away in the constellation Lyra. Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, which are 1.5 times the size of Earth, is located at the right distance from their star to have liquid on its surface water, an essential element for the emergence and development of life . Also according to the models, both terrestrial planets are likely composed of rock and ice. “These two planets there are the best candidates to be habitable (…),” said one of the scientists following the Kepler telescope, William Borucki, of the Ames Research Center of NASA, during a press conference.

700 planets discovered since 1995

Scientists have also recently discovered two planets orbiting another star, Kepler-69, located at 2,700 light years away in the constellation Cygnus. One of the two is on the edge of the “habitable zone”. The solar system Kepler-62 has three other planets, but located too close to their star to host life forms. In total, 700 planets have been discovered outside our solar system since 1995.

will in the future most powerful Kepler telescope to gather data to say whether exoplanets located in “habitable zone” actually contain water. “We are moving towards the discovery of the first worlds similar to the Earth,” said astronomer Thomas Barclay, of the Institute for Research on Environment Bay in Sonoma, California.

Reuters