Kepler-22 B

Are we alone?

By Félix-Antoine Belleau

The question we often ask ourselves about extraterrestrial life might or might not be a myth. Kepler-22b is an exoplanet orbiting Kepler-22. It is a star of main sequence and spectral type G5, it is similar to the Sun. Located about 620 light years from the Solar System in the constellation Cygnus, it is the first planet discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope. NASA stated on December 5, 2011 at a press conference that it was in the living area of a yellow dwarf. The surface area of the planet Kepler-22b is about 2.38 times larger than that of the Earth. It has a volume of about 13.5 times larger than that of the Earth. Some details remain unknown, for example, its mass, which is estimated to be estimated only with an upper limit of 124 Earth masses in a confidence interval of about 99.7%.
An artist's view of Kepler 22b. © Nasa / Ames / JPL-Caltech. (This is not the real view of the planet, we do not know what it actually looks like)
Kepler-22b takes nearly 290 days to complete a complete tour of its star, which is located at about 0.85 AU (Astronomical Unit). The luminosity of its parent star is only 20% stronger than that of the Sun of our galaxy. This allows this planet to have an ideal temperature of 20 ° C to -11 ° C. Because of the gigantic surface of the planet, whatever its nature, with an atmosphere sufficiently thick to generate a significant greenhouse effect. Because of this condition, scientists have claimed that it will be possible for the atmosphere of this exoplanet to allow the existence of liquid water. This places the possibility that this planet is classified in "habitable zone". This would make it possible to live there or to any organisms to form there.
Comparison of the size of Kepler 22b with the inner planets of the Solar System. Although we know little about this exoplanet, it could be that this exoplanet is only an ocean planet. This gives the possibility that the only possible type of life is marine life. This is only a hypothesis. I will let you imagine what you believe...

Video

The view of the planet in the Space

Coordinates: Sky map 19h 16m 52.193s, + 47 ° 53 '03.96
Click here to view it in full screen!