Kepler-10b

Scientists have recently confirmed the discovery of a rocky world similar to ours. This planet was discovered by Kepler, a space telescope and a NASA mission. Though the light from this planet was first seen in 2009, it wasn't confirmed as a real planet, orbiting a star, until recently. The Kepler telescope was especially designed to detect planets that are similar to ours and orbiting a star that coincides with the sun. Kepler-10b orbits the star Kepler-10, a star almost 3 times as old as our sun with a weak magnetic field. Though Kepler-10b seems as similar to Earth as a planet can get, it cannot sustain life. The planet is too close to its parent star to contain a tolerable temperature. Though it cannot encompass life, the star is one of the major breakthroughs in astronomy that marks our way to even greater discoveries.

The discovery of Kepler-10 and Kepler-10b is one of the most noteworthy discovery to me. It symbolizes that we can achieve anything and everything. It shows that our technology is growing and we can observe and study more and more of the miracles that lie in the dark vastness of our universe. Furthermore, I am really proud and excited by this discovery because if we were to travel outside our solar system one day, maybe we could proceed to this newly found planet and explore it. Though planet Earth is unique, maybe the founding of this planet means that there are more planets similar to Earth orbiting Kepler-10 or any other star. This planet marks a milestone in astronomy history and I hope that scientists continue to make amazing new discoveries.

The above picture was an artist's version of Kepler-10b.

The picture and the information were derived from the following source:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/509304main_kepler_rocky_planet_full.jpg

All credit goes to NASA.