Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,
NASA finds 'Earth's bigger, older cousin'
This planet is 1,400 light-year away, yet
scientists not only spotted the presence but also figured the location, size
and other characteristics. How could they do that? A planet doesn’t shine
itself, it just orbits its sun like the Earth does. What sort of technology has
made it possible for scientists predict such information?
The $600 million Kepler mission was launched
in 2009 to look for habitable planets in the far-away Milky Way. The telescope
can scan the light from those distant stars and sense slightest drop in a star’s
brightness, which is presumably caused by passing of a planet.
It sounds possible so far but how could
they guess how far it is from its sun and how big it is?
Enjoy reading and learning about this
astonishing mission and technology.
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