I am not ashamed to admit that I am a big fan of Sid Meier's Civilization games (even if he can't spell Civilisation). For me, the most satisfying victory has always been to send a spaceship packed with eager colonists soaring into the heavens, bound for a new life in Alpha Centauri. What I never quite understood was what the colonists hoped to achieve once they got there - given that Alpha Centauri is a binary (or even tertiary) star system, there really wasn't much hope of them surviving. Oh well, maybe they should have thought that one through a little better.
Fortunately for aspiring colonists everywhere, NASA takes these things a tad more seriously. The Kepler space telescope was launched in 2009 specifically to find Earth-like planets that may hold the potential to support human (or any) life. It has to date discovered 961 planets orbiting 76 different stars. Finally, with Keplar 186f, it may have struck pay dirt.
 |
| Picture credit: NASA |
Kepler 186f is a planet slightly larger than Earth, and crucially lies with the habitable zone where water can exist in a liquid state. This doesn't
guarantee there is any water, of course, or an atmosphere or any of that kind of luxury that might make a place seem homely. In fact the small size of the planet's star likely means it would be a radioactive hellhole. Still, beats being torn apart by warring gravitational forces, am I right?
Source: BBC News
No comments:
Post a Comment