Other Earth-like Planets

There are some other good candidates for an Earth-like planet with life. The following are the best so far, not counting the recently discovered three.

Kepler 452b  - This planet is 1.6 times larger than Earth and orbits a star in the habitable zone much like our sun. This star system is 1400 light years away.

Gliese 667 Cc – This large Earth like planet orbits a red dwarf star that's 22 light years away. Unfortunately, it only takes 28 days to orbit its star, which means it could be tidally locked and baked by flares from the red dwarf star.

Kepler 62f – This large Earth-like planet is 1.4 times the size of Earth and orbits a much cooler star in 267 days. The only thing going for it is the fact that it's in the habitable zone.

This one is recent. Proxima-b is slightly larger than Earth and orbits Proxima Centauri every 11 days.  Supposedly, liquid water could exist on its surface. It would be neat to stand on the surface of this planet and see three suns, two of which are tiny in the sky.

These particular planets would have reasonable temperatures. Many Earth-sized planet orbit their stars too closely and would be way to hot for life like ours. An Earth like planet should have a bolometric mean temperature from 275 to 290 K. Earth's temperature varies from 184 to 300 K, so you want the mean to be in the middle of that range.

The other thing that's needed is surface water. Without it, very little carbon-based life could evolve. Earth is essentially an ocean planet because 70% of our planet is ocean. Of course an alien planet must have a good atmosphere with some oxygen. Soon, NASA will be able to detect atmospheres on extrametrical planets and determine their composition. Eventually, with Hubble's replacement they may be able to see these planets.

The James Webb Space Telescope is just one of these new advanced instruments. This fantastic telescope will be launched in 2018 and be parked in the L2 (Lagrangian) point between the Sun and Earth. It has a 6.5 meter segmented main mirror and will cost 1.8 billion dollars.

All I can say is that astronomy is entering its Halcyon days!

Thanks for reading.