Exoplanets

 

K452b Artist Impression Image Credit NASA and Wikimedia Commons


Exoplanets are Planets outside our solar system. Over four thousand of them have been discovered. They orbit some star other than the Sun. Some are earth-like. They have temperatures suitable for living things. Some exoplanets even have an atmosphere. Some have hard surface at least in part so that life can live on it. Some other exoplanets are balls of gas!

Scientists have not found any proof of living things on any of these exoplanets. Who knows, they may find proof of that in the coming years.

The image above is not a photograph. It was an artist’s painting. NASA used it to tell news reporters in July 2015 about how its scientists found it. We don’t know much about it yet. It may be earth-like in some respects. It is in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. 

Do you want to go there? Even if you travel at the speed of light, it will take approximately 1,800 years! We have no clue how we can travel that far even at a thousandth of that speed! However, your imagination can go there in less than a second! 

Srinivasan Ramani


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