Important Innovations

Discovery Accelerates Question  of Life Beyond Earth Source:  NASA Illustration Planet Kepler-1649c Have astronomers found another Earth?  A team of  international astronomers have discovered a planet the same size as the Earth.  Like the Earth, the planet orbits its Sun Star. This exoplanet is called Kepler-1649c. Habitable The planet seems to have habitable regions.  It is  orbiting in its star's habitable zone.  That is a region around the star where a rocky planet could support water. Remarkable Discovery The scientists discovered the Earth-like planet while using reanalyzed data from NASA's Kepler space telescope. Kepler was retired in 2018.  Previous scans of the data with a computer algorithm misidentified the space object.  Astronomers taking a hard look recognized it to be a planet. Space Specifics The planet is 300 light years away from the Earth.  Of all the exoplanets discovered by

NeptoMoon Exoplanet & Exomoon Artist Rendering Out of this World There is evidence of the first known moon outside of the solar system. The Kepler space telescope has observed a dip in starlight which suggested the existence of a Neptune sized moon orbiting around a Jupiter sized, gas exoplanet about 8000 light years away. Hubble & Kepler The Hubble Space Telescope recently spotted the same dip and saw the planet passing in front of its star earlier than expected, suggesting gravitational pull from a new moon.  The evidence of a new moon is not yet conclusive but it is building.  For more new blogs and news stories on important innovations, go to  amazon.com/author/ekane