Earth-Like Planet With Possible Flowing Water, Rocky Surface Discovered 475 Light Years Away

Rio Rose Ribaya Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Artists impression of a planet resembling newly discovered Kepler 438b. | NASA

A group of researchers may have just discovered the most Earth-like planet with a rocky surface and flowing water outside the Solar System.

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said that planet Kepler 438b, which orbits a distant star in the constellation of Lyra 475 light years away, could be as hospitable to life as Earth.

Kepler 438b is 12 percent larger than Earth and circles an orange dwarf star that provides it with 40 percent more heat than our world is getting from the Sun.

The scientists, quoted in The Guardian, explained that the small size of Kepler 438b makes it likely to be a rocky world, while its proximity to its star puts it in the habitable zone, allowing a temperature that is just right for liquid water to flow.

Meanwhile, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Kepler 438b orbits its star every 35.2 days, making a year on the planet 10 times as fast as on Earth.

The research paper, which has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, also validated seven other planets that are less than twice Earth-size and in their stars' habitable zone.

All eight orbit stars cooler and smaller than our sun like Kepler 442b, which is 33 percent bigger than Earth and orbits its star once every 112 days. It has been spotted 1,100 light-years away.

Doug Caldwell, co-author of the research paper and a scientist at SETI Institute Kepler in NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said the new discoveries strengthened their confidence in finding planets that are like Earth.

"With each new discovery of these small, possibly rocky worlds, our confidence strengthens in the determination of the true frequency of planets like Earth. The day is on the horizon when we'll know how common temperate, rocky planets like Earth are," Caldwell said in a statement.

A rocky surface and flowing water are two of the most important factors scientists look for when assessing a planet's chances of being hospitable to life.