Yes, although I’m sometimes not sure whether to be happy about such discoveries getting such media coverage or frustrated by the misunderstandings and poor quality of some of the mainstream media reporting on it. Bit of both I guess. Although Letterman is actually pretty reasonable in having quite a lot of astronomical news on his show even if he does turn it all into comedy. David Letterman also been to see one of the last Space Shuttle launches and comes across to me as one of the better, smarter TV personalities on US (& obviously Aussie too) TV.

Please, would it be okay for me to quote those and you – with full attribution naturally – in an article I’m currently writing on the question of whether such “SuperEarths” are gas dwarfs or Rock giants? is there any way we can get in touch outside this blog that suits you? (I’m Steven Raine on facebook if that helps.)

BTW. Interesting to note – as someone here did waay upthread if memory serves – that the size diagram comparison seems to put Kepler 22 b at roughly the same size vs Earth as Neptune is relative to Earth. Does anyone know of or is anyone able to make a direct three way comparison diagram showing the relative sizes of Kepler 22 b, Neptune and Earth together?

@93. MTU :

Also, please, can somebody, anybody, tell me the primary stars spectral type?

Found it : G5 V yellow dwarf star – wikipedia entry for Kepler 22 b which is linked to my name.

The upper limits on the planetary mass at 1, 2 and 3 sigma are 36, 82 and 124 Earth masses. So essentially while the pure-iron composition is ruled out, dense terrestrials would still be formally compatible with the data, if utterly implausible from considerations of planet formation. Some of the presentations at the Kepler Science Conference deal with the issue of the Neptune/terrestrial transition, it is thought to occur somewhere below 2.5 Earth radii, and maybe nearer 2 Earth radii. Neptune-like and waterworld compositions appear to be more likely.

Even if you somehow manage to build a 32 Earth masses terrestrial without accreting any significant volatiles or hydrogen/helium component, you’ve still got the issue of outgassing. The planet should have a massive primordial atmosphere, and for a 32 Earth mass planet you are not going to lose much of that atmosphere at all. Given Kepler-22b receives about 10% more insolation than Earth, you need a much more moderate atmosphere or the greenhouse effect will be too large.

It is interesting they use Kepler-18b as an example: from the Kepler-18 discovery paper:

The inner, 3.5-day period planet Kepler-18b, is a super-Earth that requires a dominant mixture of water ice and rock, and no hydrogen/helium envelope. While the latter cannot be excluded simply on the basis of the planet’s mass and radius, the evaporation timescale for a primordial H/He envelope for a hot planet such as Kepler-18b is much shorter than the old age de-rived for the Kepler-18 system, and such a H/He envelope should not be present.

i.e. they regard it as a supercritical steam planet, and such planets probably lack a well-defined surface. At the lower insolation received by Kepler-22b, the evaporation of the H/He layer is going to be less of an issue.

The optimistic scenario is a primarily ice-rich planet. That ends up with an ocean of maybe 100km depth, above a mantle of high-pressure ices with a silicate core at the centre of the planet. Life needs more than just water, and the separation of the rocky material and the ocean by thousands of kilometres of ice does not bode well for mineral delivery to the ocean. Again it is questionable whether such a planet is really habitable. Plus you’d expect a substantial water vapour atmosphere, and in any case without a silicate/carbonate cycle acting as the stabilising feedback the models used for estimating the habitable zone are no longer valid.

- A clarification to the discussion of other habitables can be found in viewing the press conference. This is the first habitable well within the habitable zone. (As marginal as Earth, in fact.)

And yes, the paper have them extract the orbit parameters from the observations, so we are good.

- Re # 58, the Kepler paper (arxiv 1112.1640) has this as a potential terrestrial:

“Because only an upper limit to the mass of Kepler-22b is available (36 MÅ,1σ), any density less than 14.7 g/cc is consistent with the observations; i.e., the composition is unconstrained. Several planets with sizes similar or less than that of Kepler-22b have been discovered that have densities too low for a rocky composition (Lissauer et al. 2011). However, others, such as Kepler-18b have a size (Rp = 1.98 RÅ) similar to Kepler 22b and a density (4.9 ± 2.4g/cc) sufficiently high to imply that such planets could have a solid or liquid surface. Further, model studies of planetary structure often consider rocky planets with masses of 100 MÅ or more (Ida and Lin, 2004, Fortney et al., 2007). Because there is a possibility that Kepler-22b is a planet with a surface and an atmosphere, a surface temperature will be estimated.”

So we (at least I) will take heed of that before we “move along”.

Interestingly the upper limit places Kepler 22-b as “Earth like” in composition according to Seager et al figures. Se we are not looking at a dense terrestrial.

I don’t know much about planetary models, but apparently Seager et al isn’t the only game in town and a bit dated to boot. If the switch between terrestrials and neptunes has an overlap with as of yet undecided limits, we should keep an open mind on potential surface habitability. That is what the concept is for in the first place; modifiers apply later.

I do know that the Vulcan “Live long and prosper” hand gesture is based on the Hebrew letter Shin…

Neat. I didn’t know that one. Thanks.

BTW. The last few Letterman shows have featured Kepler 22b although David Lettermen &/or his staff seem to be under a misapprehension regarding the term “SuperEarth” thinking that’s Kepler 22b’s name and it has something to do with superman or something!

Oh, and that’s its definitely Earth’s larger twin which, yeah, probably not. Still Kepler 22b has got its ‘Letterman Top 10′ moment of fame (even here in Oz) so – yay!

http://www.theurbn.com/2011/12/twin-earth-hardly/

Kepler is providing us with amazing data. I have no doubt that soon enough we will find ‘Earth’s twin’ & it may be that kepler-22b is the one, but it is too early to say that yet. When we do eventually find a habitable planet it will be HUGE news. Let’s not spoil that moment by crying wolf too often

Well ‘Star Trek’ is really more a franchise of series not just “a show” isn’t it – if that helps any! Plus (often) a great one at that!
True, that! There was an interesting miniseries on the History channel a few years back, hosted by William Shatner at his most self-deprecatingly ‘arrogant,’ about all the ways that Star Trek shaped the modern world. They actually found some really cool stuff. For instance, some of the people who worked on the very first cell phones pretty much came out and said that they were just trying to duplicate the Star Trek Communicator* And yeah, socially, TOS was pretty darn revolutionary for its time.

I could be wrong but I think I read somewhere that Bajor even means something in Hebrew? Can anyone confirm /deny / enlighten us all on that?
I can read Hebrew, but only phonetically, so that doesn’t help much! Seriously, it’s weird – I had a Bar Mitzvah and everything, but I can’t understand the darn words. They pretty much teach you to read the syllables first (at least in the laid-back Reform sunday school I went to), and I guess you’re supposed to learn the rest of the language later Doesn’t sound like Hebrew to me (that soft J:zh sound doesn’t really ring as such), but I’ve been wrong before. I do know that the Vulcan “Live long and prosper” hand gesture is based on the Hebrew letter Shin…

As far as the Klingons, yeah, I could never fully get over that transformation between TOS and TNG. The TOS Klingons were definitely a heck of a lot more human. I guess rubber forehead technology hadn’t been perfected yet

Dominion = USA I’m not really seeing to be honest as the Dominion was far from democratic and free –
Yeah, I was kinda reaching. It doesn’t help that I live in ultraliberaltown, USA, where you’re as likely to hear the guy at the coffee counter talking about the American Hegemonic Empire as about the weather I mean, I’m an unapologetic Librul, and people around here make me look like Newt Gingrich.

*And the cool thing is, they did, and eventually surpassed them! Shoot, how many Star Trek communicators had global positioning, still and video cameras, magnetic and G sensors, etc etc?

(Klingons and Bajorans come to mind). Now, if you wanted to compare nations to alien races ..

The Bajorans always struck me as a metaphor for the Jewish people – even perhaps Israelis specifically – with their diaspora (remember Ensign Rho Laren?) and persecution and finally returning home. Mind you there are quite a few differences too starting with plural gods incl. Cisko! I could be wrong but I think I read somewhere that Bajor even means something in Hebrew? Can anyone confirm /deny / enlighten us all on that? (Not a Hebrew speaker myself alas.)

Which, I guess, makes the Cardassians the Arabs!

The Klingons began* – in TOS – as a pretty straight metaphor – at least in the original series to the evil Soviet empire with, just perhaps if you stretch the analogy far enough, the Romulans as the (Then-red) Chinese. But the Klingons story changed & evolved a lot subseqeuntly to the point where the Klingon species and culture became really so much more than they were originally.

Not sure you can really draw all that many parallels to politics with various episodes playing up and down various aspects of all the various species /cultures involved. Fair bit of guesswork and imagination in drawing political parallels although I’m sure at least some were intended.

Dominion = USA I’m not really seeing to be honest as the Dominion was far from democratic and free – can’t really see parallels there for present world politics. Eygpt under the Pharoahs maybe? Romulans – Romans parallel from ancient history too which I guess would make the Vulcans ancient Greeks! Hhmm…

How sad is it that I know more about a defunct TV show then astronomy?

Well ‘Star Trek’ is really more a franchise of series not just “a show” isn’t it – if that helps any! Plus (often) a great one at that!

There are many SF shows I love and can talk for hours on & I love astronomy and can talk for even longer on that too – just different passions and both interesting, enjoyable and quite often complementary.

—————————————————
* True story or so I’ve heard – apparently the Klingon homeworld was originally going to be called “Kling” before they realsied that sounded pretty silly!

Now, if you wanted to compare nations to alien races (and you were being particularly uncharitable), you might be able to compare the Dominion to the United States, as it’s composed of a number of different alien races (which can be seen as analogies either to the US’s ethnic diversity or its policy of supporting proxy nations during the Cold War) and very much follows a doctrine of pre-emption (the Changelings in charge basically kicked off the whole thing as a way to keep themselves from being destroyed by the “solids”).
Actually, I suppose you could also compare it to the former Soviet Union.

How sad is it that I know more about a defunct TV show then astronomy?

So Democratic party = Federation & Republican party = Ferengi – which on reflection makes even more sense given the sexist Ferengi attitude to women too.

The Dominion is quite militaristic, much moreso than Starfleet, so I’m not sure if that’d be consistent with the anti-war crowd within the Democratic party.

The Dominion

Radial velocity studies have been pushing down to smaller planets around Alpha Centauri (gas giants have been ruled out already), but remember that not all planetary systems are going to be detectable. If, say, the system consists of a bunch of lunar-mass planets, it will essentially be invisible to any detection method that is likely to be available for a long time to come. We detect the planets we are able to detect.

I don’t like the borg, or ferengi, or facebook

I think the HZ concept is truly cool, however Iam excited to learn if Life can sustain itself solelupy on volcanism. There could be planets with no suns harboring Life getting heat and nutrients from the core of their planet. Though we most probably won’t see them or find them if they are outside our solar system because they will be dark’ iam just using a little imagination. I think some of the planets or moons in our solar system might be speculated to have liquid water due to other factors than just solar heating (MTU @ 116).

As for those who ho-hum it…there is something to be gained/learned from everything. Each discovery potentially leads to new knowledge, new techniques, new ideas and most importantly a freshly invigorating imagination; without which nothing human is possible.