NASA to Make BIG Announcement Live on Thursday - Another Earth?!

I can not seem to find the post but I am pretty sure someone asked if this planet announced yesterday was likely to be the best one we'd find with Kepler or if there were even better ones out there which could be announced.

Yesterday I had a look at the new list of planet candidates and there are still some planets which would look even better than this one in terms of being nearly identical in size, orbit and type of star the planet orbits.

Planet candidates are just what they're called, they might be planets, or they might be false positives (things like sunspots on the surface of a star which cause a similar dimming of light as if a planet was orbiting it). For this reason planet candidates are called KOIs (Kepler Objects of Interest) rather than given a Kepler-xxxx name. They will earn that if they are verified as real planets.

BTW: The Earth Cousin/Twin known as Kepler-452b which NASA announced yesterday was once called KOI-7016 b on planet candidate lists

Kepler has about a 10% false positive rate. Meaning over 90% of it's planet candidates are planets. Which ones are and which ones aren't is the work of teams of astronomers who use other telescopes or collected data to verify or rule out a planet candidate.

Here is the newly updated list of high Earth Similarity Index (ESI) Kepler planet candidates.

The ESI number is at the far right and is a fraction of 1.00 (ie: a planet with a 1.00 would be identical to Earth based on the very basic physical characteristics, size, mass, orbit, star etc):



As you can see there is one candidate with an ESI of 0.98 which tops the list! If verified that may knock yesterday's announcement down a little as it would be even more similar to Earth based on the same criteria.

For comparison here was the list prior to yesterday's data release:



BTW: ESI numbers are not written in stone, they can vary sometimes wildly as more is learned about the planet or star it orbits.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: JadeStar

I saw a movie last year where the astronaut went through a worm-hole at the speed to light and returned to Earth to find his daughter was an old lady on her death-bed. He hadn't aged hardly at all though. What I don't understand is how the dude in the mothership orbiting the visited planet aged 40 years. That movie was DEEP. Pity I can't think of the name of it now...

That movie must have used the theory you described. Awesome stuff.

I have been avoiding all discussion of that movie Because i haven't seen it but I hear it is great. I'm waiting for it to appear on Netflix.

"Interstellar"

We haven't found any intelligent life here, so what makes us think we'll find it out there?

Let me know when humanity grows up, then maybe we might have a slim chance of branching out. As far as I can tell, we'll have killed ourselves before space can become anything more than pretty scenery.

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: Nochzwei

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: Nochzwei
I'll take a bet that it has nothing to do with kepler
a reply to: JadeStar

I'll take that bet. What do you offer?

Lol too late. I lost it already

Aren't you relieved you didn't do it now?

What would you have wagered?

Not relieved but a bit amused, though was thinking of a 100 dollar bill bet td

originally posted by: Nochzwei

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: Nochzwei

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: Nochzwei
I'll take a bet that it has nothing to do with kepler
a reply to: JadeStar

I'll take that bet. What do you offer?

Lol too late. I lost it already

Aren't you relieved you didn't do it now?

What would you have wagered?

Not relieved but a bit amused, though was thinking of a 100 dollar bill bet td

Aww I wish you had! I could have used that cash!

NASA would never be able to know if they found another Earth like planet with the technology today...I mean come on people.
We have no clue if their is any other life out there but there would be massives amounts of planets.

All NASA is doing is estimating if the very tiny fliker of lighted dot they see, which are most likely a planet could have life based on the location it is from the Star it is near.Or in that planets case it would be that planets Sun. Doubt if we will know in our lifetime.

Alien abductions are real if you would spend the time to study credbilty of them and not the hoaxers.Aliens of some sort have also spied on our nuke program and temporaily shut the missle luanchers down..Russia ,China and U.S. all blamed each other.

originally posted by: Jobeycool
NASA would never be able to know if they found another Earth like planet with the technology today...I mean come on people.
We have no clue if their is any other life out there but there would be massives amounts of planets.

All NASA is doing is estimating if the very tiny fliker of lighted dot they see, which are most likely a planet could have life based on the location it is from the Star it is near.Or in that planets case it would be that planets Sun. Doubt if we will know in our lifetime.

I'd bet you we will within 15 years. Not for this planet but other closer ones like it.

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: Nochzwei

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: Nochzwei

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: Nochzwei
I'll take a bet that it has nothing to do with kepler
a reply to: JadeStar

I'll take that bet. What do you offer?

Lol too late. I lost it already

Aren't you relieved you didn't do it now?

What would you have wagered?

Not relieved but a bit amused, though was thinking of a 100 dollar bill bet td

Aww I wish you had! I could have used that cash!

Not to worry, I'll buy you a drink someday.