Kepler telescope is dead but the data lives on: Earth-sized habitable zone planet found after boffins check for errors Astronomers have uncovered a new exoplanet that's roughly the same size as Earth and lies within its star's habitable zone 300 light years away after checking for software errors. The images, collected by the now-defunct Kepler space telescope, show a rocky planet – dubbed Kepler-1649c – that is only six per cent larger than …
There's another problem : the star is a red dwarf.
Those things are not exactly calm and composed, they can spit a CME at you if you look at them wrong.
And, being that close, if that planet still has an atmosphere it might not be sufficient to sustain human life.
But at least this time, when they say "an Earth-like planet", they're within an acceptable ball park. I'm tired of reading about the discovery of an "Earth-like" that is more than twice the size of ours. That's not Earth-like, that's just another ball of rock.
I'm not going to move to a planet where I weigh twice as much simply by getting there.
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Tidal locking could still leave a habitable zone between the hot and frozen hemispheres.
The biggest problem is the age of the red dwarf. If it is young the planet would likely be subject to atmosphere stripping and surface sterilizing flares.
Rimmer might make it but Lister is toast.
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