Astronomers Discover New Earth-Like Planet

This week a group of astronomers released information about a new planet that has been discovered. In the ongoing quest to discover and understand the universe new planets are found relatively often, but it isn’t very often that a planet this similar to Earth is discovered. The new planet might be nearly 500 light-years away, but scientists say it is a pretty significant discovery.

The new planet is named Kepler-186f, and while it is absolutely impossible to reach it scientists say it has plenty of information that could help us understand the origins of the universe. There have been quite a few planets discovered that are similar to Earth, but Kepler is unique in that it has been given a 90% chance of having liquid water. Based on the distance from the nearest star, as well as other factors, astronomers say that Kepler is the most likely planet we’ve found that could be inhabited by life.

This is a very significant scientific breakthrough, and it just goes to show how much research and science are constantly advancing. Additional research is being conducted right now, but it is still pretty impressive to see just how much information we can discern from such a distant planet.

Earthbound Asteroid Barely Misses

An asteroid was expected to make a very close pass with Earth today and fortunately for everyone that was the entire extent of the ordeal. Originally there was speculation that the asteroid’s path may have been curving just enough that it would actually make an impact on Earth but fortunately such a disaster was avoided today.

The asteroid was all over the news around the world as a worldwide fear that impact might be coming spread; fortunately the original calculations were in fact correct. The large asteroid passed by Earth in a boomerang like orbit with just 7000 miles between it and Earth.

As always the near miss brought up some serious debates among emergency response teams; and in the end this is perhaps the greatest benefit of the entire scare. Creating some sort of emergency response plan is always the first plan of action so that is exactly what many national teams did in countries all over the world.

Fortunately there is not another predicted near Earth asteroid pass for the next 19 years so it will be quite some time before another possible scare spreads among the news media. As for now researchers will continue tracking the asteroid that just missed Earth while also constantly keeping track of other potential asteroids that could come close to Earth. Fortunately for everyone today’s possible collision was avoided simply due to the sheer coincidence of where the asteroid passed; if an actual impact had occured it is unknown what would have possibly happened after the impact.

Each year on April 22^nd Earth Day is celebrated by millions of people and this year Google decided to participate as well. The overall purpose of Earth Day is to raise awareness about green living and conservation so it is not surprising that Earth Day has become more popular recently.

Frequently Google has been known to change logos for special occasions and holidays and that is exactly what Google has done today. As always the Google logo still says “Google” but today there is a hidden message; Earth Day Awareness. As usual the new logo is interactive so users can have some fun and learn about Earth Day and green living in the process.

Earth Day has been getting more and more popular in the past few years and ever since the original Earth Day in 1970 many countries outside the U.S. have joined the cause. This year Google got involved in Earth Day through the awareness as well as a few other small projects but analysts say that in the next few years we will likely see even more major companies getting involved as well.

As always Earth Day is a great reminder for everyone that there are things we can do to keep the Earth clean. Although Earth Day only comes around once a year the goal, according to sponsor organizations, is to prove to people that saving the environment year round is not a difficult thing to accomplish when everyone works together to do their part.