Recently, NASA's Kepler's K2 mission journey uncovered a new planet. Called the K2-3d, it is thought to be harboring alien life.
Taking great interest in the new planet, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan found that it was about 150 million light-years away from the Earth. It was found to be 1.5 times bigger than the Earth, while it orbits a star just half the sun in size. One revolution lasts 45 days.
Even though it is quite some distance away, the Space.com says that the K2-3d planet shares man similarities with the Earth, which might harbor and maintain life.
The characteristics include a warm and tolerable atmosphere, quite similar to the earth. It also appears to be hosting water as well as a star orbiting nearby. Hence, the possibility of life on this planet is very high.
While there is no way of confirming these speculations, such studies take a longer time to prove than other space-related studies. The theories are most likely to be confirmed in the coming year.
NASA will launch the Hubble Telescope in the coming year in order to go for a "more in-depth examination" of the likely planet. The objective of NASA scientists would be to find two important characteristics that would confirm its ability to host life: clouds and hydrogenic atmosphere. The attempt and hope is to discover "a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, or a blanket of clouds," says Dr Björn Benneke at the California Institute of Technology.
If this happens, the K2-3d planet will be the center for further in-depth and comprehensive research, confirming how much life it can hold. "'If we found any signal, then we would hit K2-3d extremely hard with James Webb Space Telescope [Nasa's successor to the Hubble telescope, which will launch in 2018],' Dr Benneke said.
