Planets which exist along the lines of Earth and may have the ability to support life have been discovered. The closest planet which may have the potential to support life is found at a distance of 470 light years.
There are a total of eight Earth like planets which have been identified but the two most promising are Kepler – 442b and Kepler – 438b. The Kepler-438b, discovered using the Kepler telescope, seems to be the best among all.
Both the planets are found to be revolving around red dwarf starts which are smaller and cooler than our Sun.
Kepler – 442b is larger than Earth by one – third but it is lighter than Earth by about two – thirds. It is believed to have a 97% chance of possessing water but it is about 1100 light years away.
Kepler – 438b on the other hand is just 470 light years away and there is a 70% chance that water might exist on its surface. It receives 40% more heat than what the Earth does from the Sun.
These two planets were pointed out by the telescope yesterday and hence increasing the total number of exoplanets known to man to a thousand. These are very small in mass and hence cannot be identified using the method of mass measurement. It was discovered using statistical methods.
A computer program which goes by the name of BLENDER was used to statistically determine the position of potential planets to support life. NASA Ames runs BLENDER on a Pleiades supercomputer.