NASA's Kepler K2 mission, tasked to hunt for exoplanets, discovered a tiny planet that might be holding alien life forms. It is considered to fall within the habitable zone that enables it to hold liquid water and a fairly tolerable atmosphere making it suitable for life.
K2-3d is the latest discovery by NASA's Kepler K2 mission. The mission discovered this tiny planet believed to be holding alien life. It is about 150 million light-years from Earth, according to the research conducted by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
K2-3d, also called Super Earth by the new study's researchers, is bigger compared to Earth. However, it orbits a much smaller Sun every 45 days. But what piqued the scientists' interests is the tiny planet's potential Earth-like properties that initially make it suitable for harboring life. And because it is Earth-like in its state today, some believe there could already be some form of alien life existing in Super Eath K2-3d.
The tiny planet was first spotted transiting its star using NASA's Kepler space telescope. K2-3d is believed to be suitable for life because, despite the fact that it orbits closer to its star, the star is cooler, according to Space.com. This means the tiny planet may be able to retain water in its liquid form thus making it Earth-like.
The findings were published in the Astrological Journal last November. In order to further understand the characteristics of the planet, various equipment were used.
"We report the first ground-based transit observation of K2-3d, a 1.5 R planet supposedly within the habitable zone around a bright M-dwarf host star, using the Okayama 188 cm telescope and the multi(grz)-band imager MuSCAT," a part of the research team said in a press release.
Scientists believe that the launch of NASA's new James Webb Telescope will pave the way for better understanding of the potentially habitable Super-Earth K2-3d.