2 ms·
Actually, the most interesting results won't be here til the second half of 2012, if you take the following [somewhat chauvinistic] criteria into account: - A
by wlievens 16y ago
Actually, the most interesting results won't be here til the second half of 2012, if you take the following [somewhat chauvinistic] criteria into account:
- A really interesting planet orbits a planet similar to the sun.
- The goldilocks zone around a planet similar to the sun puts it in an orbit radius of around 1 year (give or take 20% or so) because orbit period is a function of solar mass and distance.
- It takes three occurances to be sure that a "dip" you see in light emissions is probably a pattern rather than a coincidence. It's like colinear points on a plane: two points always make a line, but for three points to be on a line you're pretty damn lucky.
- Kepler was launched in 2009.
So in the end of 2012 we'll have a list of (hopefully hundreds of) confirmed earth-like planets that orbit sol-like stars with a rotation period around 1 year. That is awesome.