kepler

kepler 186f planet

Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone—a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that Earth-size planets exist in the habitable zones of other stars and signals a significant step closer to finding a world similar to Earth.
The size of Kepler-186f is known to be less than ten percent larger than Earth, but its mass, composition and density are not known. Previous research suggests that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is likely to be rocky. Prior to this discovery, the "record holder" for the most "Earth-like" planet went to Kepler-62f, which is 40 percent larger than the size of Earth and orbits in its star's habitable zone.
Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130 days and receives one-third the energy that Earth does from the sun, placing it near the outer edge of the habitable zone. If you could stand on the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon would appear as bright as our sun is about an hour before sunset on Earth.
Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The system is also home to four inner planets, seen lined up in orbit around a host star that is half the size and mass of the sun.
Kepler-186f's location within the habitable zone does not ensure it is habitable; this is also dependent on its atmospheric characteristics, which are unknown. Kepler-186f is too distant, however, for its atmosphere to be analyzed by existing telescopes (e.g., NESSI) or next-generation instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope. A simple climate model, in which the planet's inventory of volatiles is restricted to nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water and clouds are not accounted for, suggests that the planet's surface temperature would be above 273 K (0 °C; 32 °F) if at least 0.5 to 5 bars of CO₂ is present in its atmosphere, for assumed N₂ partial pressures ranging from 10 bar to zero, respectively.
The star hosts four other planets discovered so far, although Kepler-186 b, c, d, and e (in order of increasing orbital radius), being too close to their star, are considered too hot to have liquid water. The four innermost planets are probably tidally locked, but Kepler-186f is in a higher orbit, where the star's tidal effects are much weaker, so the time could have been insufficient for its spin to slow down significantly. Because of the very slow evolution of red dwarfs, the age of the Kepler-186 system was poorly constrained, although it is likely to be greater than a few billion years. Recent results have placed the age at around 4 billion years. The chance that it is tidally locked is approximately 50%. Since it is closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, it will probably rotate much more slowly than Earth; its day could be weeks or months long (see Tidal effects on rotation rate, axial tilt and orbit)
Kepler-186f's axial tilt (obliquity) is likely very small, in which case it would not have tilt-induced seasons as Earth and Mars do. Its orbit is probably close to circular, so it will also lack eccentricity-induced seasonal changes like those of Mars. However, the axial tilt could be larger (about 23 degrees) if another undetected nontransiting planet orbits between it and Kepler-186e; planetary formation simulations have shown that the presence of at least one additional planet in this region is likely. If such a planet exists, it cannot be much more massive than Earth as it would then cause orbital instabilities.
One review assay in 2015 concluded that Kepler-186f, along with the exoplanets Kepler-442b and Kepler-62f, were likely the best candidates for being potentially habitable planets




Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission with a spacecraft carrying an instrument that is searching for exoplanets.
Habitable Mean Right temperature,  Liquid water,  Air to breathe,  Light to keep you, warm and to see  Radiation shield,  Asteroid, protection,  The right amount of gravity
Kepler is such a sensitive instrument that it can detect 1 part in 1 million decrease in the star photon flux due to a planet transit.
Kepler trails the Earth in an orbit around the Sun and rotates every 3 months to keep sunlight out of the telescope.
Kepler-186f is 10% larger than Earth with a 130 day orbit and is located around 500 light years from Earth.