Experience this: Five Hundred and Seventy Nine Light Years away from home we find a new home. A place quite similar to what we previously used to call ‘Mother Earth’. A five year old looking outside from a generation ship as a blue spot fades into the darkness and becomes nothing more than a ‘Pale Blue Dot’. He feels a wave of joy within himself with the thought of living on another planet like he always dreamed to. On the other hand, an 86-year-old woman looks outside feeling her memory being erased as the spot faded further. It’s true that many of us might have different views about SETI.
Finding a home away from home was exactly what we tried to achieve in 2014 when Kepler-186f was found. Kepler-186 f is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits an M-type star. Its mass is 1.71 Earths, it takes 129.9 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.432 AU from its star. Its within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Kepler-186, the outermost of five such planets discovered around the star by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is located in the constellation of Cygnus. Because of Kepler-186's location in the habitable zone around its star, the planet might be a place where life can thrive. It's possible that the planet has an atmosphere that can help keep water in liquid form on the surface. Kepler-186f is believed to be slightly larger than Earth and to have a similar composition to it. It is not known whether the planet has an atmosphere. Kepler-186f was the first Earth-size planet found orbiting within its star's habitable zone or Goldilocks zone. Some may call Kepler-186f to be Earth’s first cousin. That is what gives scientists much of the hope for being a possible planet for life to thrive on.
But Kepler-186f, orbits an M-class dwarf star and receives only about a third of the energy from its sun that Earth receives from Sun. That means it could be frozen. More than 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy are M dwarfs, a star classification indicating stars that are small, cool and dim. Any planet orbiting an M dwarf must be in a relatively tight orbit around the host star for it to receive enough warmth from the star to support life. That means that radiation can be a major setback for Kepler-186f as a potential planet for future generations.
While more planets like Kepler-186f are being discovered every day, it remains one of the first habitable exoplanets found and thus allowing us to start looking for more life out there. One day, we might or might not move to a planet like Kepler-186f. One day, we might or might not find out that all this was nothing more than a dream. One day, all of us might or might not see what Voyager 1 saw as a ‘Pale Blue Dot’. One day, we might or might not breathe the air there. Either way, it is our curiosity that pushes us to unveil the clandestine held by the universe.
Commentaires