A brand new Earth?

There has been an ongoing search to answer the question, “Are we alone in this huge universe?”. When the first exoplanet was found in 1996 there was considerable excitement amongst the astronomers who hoped to find life on another planet. The recent discovery of Kepler-186f has added to this excitement.

Although not quite Earth 2.0 the planet is rocky and has the right distance from its sun to harbor liquid water. This as we all know, is the first step to potentially generating life. The planet orbits a sun that is half the size of ours and much cooler besides. However it does prove that Earth like planets do exist in the habitable zone in other solar systems.

The habitable zone refers to the distance from the sun of the solar system in which planets can comfortably hold liquid water. The liquid water is what forms the primordial soup from which the first single cellular organisms are formed under drastic chemical reactions.

While we may not be looking at ET as yet in the Kepler system, it is comforting to know that there are other planets that humankind could migrate to in the distant future. Now that would be an exciting science project to undertake.