Kepler-21b: Near Earth-Sized Planet Discovered 352 Light-Years Away

The National Optical Astronomy Observatory announced on Wednesday the discovery of Kepler-21b, a new planet that's close to the size of earth and is only about 352 light years away.

"By astronomical standards, that's right next door," Katy Garmany, the Deputy Press Officer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, told HuffPost.

Astronomers frequently discover new planets (according to Time magazine, we're up to over 2,000), but Garmany said that what's exciting about Kepler 21-b is that the planet is relatively Earth-sized. While its mass is about 10 times the size of our planet, its radius is only 1.6 times the size of Earth's.

"Until a few years ago, the smallest extra-solar planet that we had discovered was the size of Jupiter or Saturn, which are about ten times bigger than the Earth," Garmany said. "Now we're getting down to something almost the size of the Earth, showing that we have the technology to find the earth-size planets."

The new planet has a star that's just a bit bigger and hotter than Earth's sun, although it's substantially younger. But because the planet is so close to its star, it's far too hot to have liquid water, the base for life as we know it. At only 6 million kilometers (about 3.7 million miles) away from the star, Kepler-21b's temperature is a blistering 2,960 degrees Fahrenheit, according to scientists' estimates.

By contrast, Earth is about 150,000,000 km (93 million miles) from its own sun.

The discovery of Kepler-21b was a collaboration of both sky (the Kepler observatory) and ground-based telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, writes in Discover Magazine that researchers examined the planet for 15 months. The results of the study will be published in Astrophysical Journal.

Comments

[joe the retard]

11:28 AM on 12/21/2011

you idiots really believe they would tell us if they found life or a planet like Earth which would probably mean they found life.........Trust me they wouldnt.....too many jesus, moses and muhmmad freaks

[Sheline Riggs]

01:09 AM on 12/21/2011

its good idea to look into space , were running out of space down here , what about moon base? its
odd that we have not went back an set base up . A base would be easy to supply on moon, send
materials to live on an building materials to work with an your telescopes would work well from the moon even future or farther space launches could be done from there fuel would last longer we could make it 52 state if we don't china will i thank we need to be on top if we find planet we need to get there.

[joe the retard]

11:29 AM on 12/21/2011

im sure we have them already

[Rexaldrin Mateo]

06:01 AM on 12/07/2011

It's too hot in there!!
they said that it's a littlebit bigger & hotter than the erth's sun & it is near the planet,..
you will get dried if u live there,...
xD

[praymondc]

02:44 AM on 12/07/2011

I don't quite understand how the .6 greater than earth diameter adds 9 times more mass, but then, I'm no mathematician or astronomer. This report says 352 light years, when I thought a previous report was 600 light years... maybe they were reporting a different planet?.... Anyway folks, take heart, perhaps a better world does await us after all. I would also imagine the size of creatures evolving on any planet, would be in proportion to its mass...greater the gravity the smaller the creatures.... would seem logical for natural reasons of mobility.

[divemedic911]

02:07 AM on 12/07/2011

From astronomical standards it is 352 YEARS at 186,000 MPS. By contrast it took 3 days at 25,000 MPH to reach the moon. Sadly we won't be mining it anytime soon.

[Noble9]

12:27 AM on 12/07/2011

I just wanna know where the fellas that probed me and chopped up my cows came from.

[Hope Iseminger]

11:32 AM on 12/06/2011

I think its cool knowing that there are other galaxies out there with suns and planets. :3

[Steve Rockett]

02:04 AM on 12/06/2011

Yep. me and the kids are going there next weekend. It is the off season.

[CaptainFrogbert]

12:21 PM on 12/06/2011

Nah. Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

[Roy m]

11:43 PM on 12/05/2011

352 light years not that far hold on let me buy a walker,a wheelchair and a adjustable bed and well go check it out.

[Al Schrader]

07:19 PM on 12/05/2011

It's Dec 4th not Jan 4th, 2011. The universe is teaming with life. Almost every star has one planet or more. Stars are made from planets. Planets are formed from asteroids. If you look at photos of asteroids you will see impact craters on them. These impacts are from smaller pieces that have become part of the roid. In time the roids get big enough to be captured as moons, then they become planets, and eventually stars. The light from the stars re-collects back into dust, then into roids, and so on starting what is an endless process. In a respect you could say a galaxy is a living thing.

[James T Kirk]

07:11 AM on 12/07/2011

You are so far off base it is incredible! You clearly demonstrate that you have no idea what you are talking about! Par for the course!

[Marko Townsend]

04:21 PM on 12/02/2011

This is not an Earth-like planet and they shouldn't hint that it is even anywhere near like Earth. I'm waiting to hear about a liquid water planet PERIOD

[zdubchi]

01:53 AM on 12/06/2011

The headline didn't say Earth-like it said Earth-sized. Discovering planets, even those that are uninhabitable, is a big deal.

[Rich Cash]

12:31 AM on 12/02/2011

With a mass 10x that of Earth's, and a radius 1.6 x Earth's, and the Earth's density is about 5.2g/cm3 that would make this planet's density about 34g/cm3. (Somebody check my math)...Anyway, that makes absolutely no sense. Uranium is the heaviest known naturally occuring element at about 18.2g/cm3, so whatever made up this planet would have to be almost twice as dense as uranium. Maybe a tiny neutronium core surrounded by successively less dense elements? I dunno about this one.

[ny1989]

09:14 PM on 12/05/2011

i think you messed up the math a bit. Density is a calculated by dividing the mass by the volume. since calculating volume involves cubing the radius (4/3 pi r cubed), the volume of the planet would be about 4 times that of the earth (1.6 cubed = 4.069). since the mass is 10x the earth, the density of the planet would be about 2.4x the density of the earth or 12.6 g/cm3.

[Rich Cash]

07:54 PM on 12/07/2011

Thanks NY, I knew I must have forgotten something. Still, that would make the planet about as dense as mercury (the element, not the planet, lol). It would be a great source of heavy metals.

[ny1989]

10:23 PM on 12/05/2011

in calculating the density, you forgot to cube the radius.

[RoadRevolution]

11:09 PM on 12/01/2011

I find it amusing and a bit puzzling to why seemingly smart people spend their life time looking for planets similar to Earth and finding absolutely nothing at all similar to Earth and refusing to acknowledge.... God made this planet specificly and lovingly for us. That is how great God is.

[takecourage]

11:34 PM on 12/01/2011

God wasted a bunch of space just to make one ball of dirt to be destroyed in a few thousand years by ungrateful brats. That's how great God is?

[RoadRevolution]

10:00 AM on 12/02/2011

What a sad comment coming from one ungrateful brat to be living and breathing on this planet. Where would you like to live??? And yes, God is great that he gives you a chance to know Him, don't blow it.

[ononymous]

01:40 AM on 12/02/2011

They spend their life seeking truth, instead of accepting hand-fed lies.
You're just as puzzling to them.

[RoadRevolution]

10:05 AM on 12/02/2011

They spend their life avoiding the truth. They come to the end of their life no closer to finding anything that proves anything other than God is in charge, God is the ultimate scientist, and that God is truth. You my friend are in denial if you think man in his quest to find truth finds it through data and a telescope and not their spiritual connection to the universe. In many ways I think scientist are one dimensional, while the rest of us are multi dimensional in are thinking, feeling, and intellect.

[frank1946]

10:49 PM on 12/01/2011

When I look at the night Sky I always am reminded of God !

I wonder if the Mysteries and Knowledge which seems limitless and infinte.

I am humbled by such an immense and complex concept called Space.

I do not believe such a place called Space could exist without a God to create and watch
over it ?

[fhmjam]

10:28 PM on 12/01/2011

Gore was right!! (I don't know about what, but he was right.) Indications are his mercury/arsenic laden light bulbs are being utilized on this planet.....