Scientists Discover Potentially Habitable Planet In Old Kepler Data

The search is on for planets that are inhabitable because due to the finite number of resources we have on Earth, it is possible that one day in the future we might need to seek other planets in order to keep on living. Some planets such as Mars have been proposed as a possibility, but now scientists have discovered another potential.

However, what’s interesting about this discovery is the fact that it was actually discovered years ago. The data was initially gathered by the Kepler space telescope years ago but due to the algorithm that was used, it was initially dismissed by the system. It was only recently brought back into focus thanks to scientists who were combing over the early data.

This particular exoplanet, dubbed the Kepler-1649c, is about 1.06 times larger than our planet. It also gets about 75% of the light our planet gets, which isn’t exactly idea, but still puts it into the habitable zone category. This is good news as it means that it is another potential planet that could be explored in the future as a possible habitable zone.

Unfortunately, not much else is known about the Kepler-1649c, such as its atmospheric conditions. This means that there is still a chance that despite it meeting some of the conditions of being a habitable planet, the atmospheric conditions could render that null and void. That being said, the Kepler-1649c is 300 light years away so don’t expect us to be making trips there anytime soon.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Science, Space