The Possibilities And Search For Life Beyond Our Solar System Detecting Atmospheres of Extrasolar PlanetsWithin our solar system quite a bit of exploration has been done by spacecraft including orbiters and landers. Planets outside our solar system will be difficult or impossible to explore with spacecraft in our lifetimes, so astronomers and astrobiologists use other techniques to search for signs of life on these planets. In particular, astronomers are interested in planets within the habitable zone of stars.Tags: SETIlifeCoRoTKeplerexoplanets
Kepler-22b: A 2.4 Earth-radius Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Sun-like Star A search of the time-series photometry from NASA's Kepler spacecraft reveals a transiting planet candidate orbiting the 11th magnitude G5 dwarf KIC 10593626 with a period of 290 days. The characteristics of the host star are well constrained by high-resolution spectroscopy combined with an asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler photometry, leading to an estimated mass and radius of 0.970 +/- 0.060 MSun and 0.979 +/- 0.020 RSun. The depth of 492 +/- 10ppm for the three observed transits yields a radius of 2.38 +/- 0.13 REarth for the planet.Borucki et al. 2011, ApJ, in press (arXiv:1112.1640)
