The first world found in the right place — and fifteen years later, we still don't know what it is. 🌍
In December 2011, NASA's Kepler mission announced Kepler-22b: the first transiting planet ever confirmed in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star — a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin.
It lies about 640 light-years away in Cygnus, orbiting its Sun-like star every 290 days. At about 2.1 times Earth's radius — revised down from the 2.4 first announced in 2011 — its equilibrium temperature, assuming an Earth-like albedo and no atmosphere, would be about 6 °C.
But here is the honest part: its mass and composition are still unknown. An Earth-like makeup is considered unlikely. It could be an ocean world, or volatile-rich, wrapped in a liquid or gaseous outer layer. We never confirmed water, oceans, or life.
The first habitable world — and still a mystery.
PROJECTORBIT — the universe, one planet at a time.
#Kepler22b #ProjectOrbit #Exoplanet #HabitableZone #NASA #Kepler
