So …. Christmas trees are like strip clubs for cats.
npr:
Scientists have discovered a planet not too much bigger than Earth that’s circling a distant star that’s much like our own sun. What’s more, this planet is in the “Goldilocks zone” around that star — a region that’s not too hot and not too cold. That’s the kind of place that could be home to liquid water and maybe even life.
The planet, known as Kepler-22b, is the first near-Earth-sized planet to be found smack dab in the middle of the habitable zone of a twin to our Sun.
The planet is about 2 1/2 times the size of the Earth. It orbits a little closer to its star than our planet does to our sun, and goes around once every 290 days compared with our 365. But its star is a bit cooler than our sun, says William Borucki of NASA Ames Research Center, who heads NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission, which detected this planet.
“That means that that planet, Kepler-22b, has a rather similar temperature to that of the Earth,” Borucki says. “Its surface temperature would be something like 72 Fahrenheit.”
It’s not yet clear what kind of surface the planet might have — researchers don’t know if the planet is made mostly of rock or water or something else. And don’t expect astronauts to climb on a rocket and go there anytime soon.
“The star is some 600 light-years away,” says Borucki, “so it’s not terribly far away, but not terribly close either.”
life:
Did you know? — On this day in 1884, the Washington Monument was completed.
It appears to be as simple and elegant a monument as you could find, but the record-breaking obelisk that dominates the Washington, D.C., skyline has a story that’s both complicated and even a little crude.
Pictured: On Dec. 6, 1884, the capstone was set and topped with the biggest piece of aluminum in the world, in the form of a 100-ounce lightning rod (aluminum was then as expensive and rare as silver). Workers tend to the tip of the monument in 1930.
(see more — Story of the Washington Monument)
