An Exo-What...?

Simply put, an exoplanet is a planet that orbits another star. That said, just because a planet orbits a star (like Earth) does not mean that it is automatically stable for life. The planet must be within the habitable zone, which is the area around a star in which water has the potential to be liquid…aka not so close that all the water would evaporate, and not too far away where all the water would freeze.

Recently, with the help of our Kepler spacecraft, scientists have discovered the most Earth-like exoplanet ever, Kepler-452b. Pretty cool! This chart shows 12 other exoplanet discoveries that are less than twice the size of Earth, and live in the habitable zone of their host star. Kepler-452b is special because all previous findings have orbited stars that are smaller and cooler than Earth’s.

You may be thinking, “Okay, so what? There’s an Earth-like planet that spins around a similar sized sun.” Well, Kepler-452b orbits its sun at nearly the same distance from its star as Earth does from our sun, which means that conditions on the plant could be similar to those here on Earth!

We can already guess your next question…”When are we going to Kepler-452b?!” Well, this planet is located in the constellation Cygnus which is 1,400 light-years away, so not anytime soon. However, our Kepler spacecraft continues to search for Earth-like exoplanets and gather important scientific information about them.

Getting ahead of myself

So it’s Monday evening and I say to myself: Good grief, it’s already Wednesday! It seems that way because I’m thinking: tomorrow I’ll have to start worrying about my Japanese class, which meets on Wednesday evening; but with that thought I realize that I’m already worrying about it now. So Tuesday is already part of Wednesday, and so is Monday. And that’s how the timeline collapses.

0 notes View Post

spectrum-speculation

7 years ago

How I see myself

12K notes View Post

spectrum-speculation

6 years ago

Sending suicide bait to somebody you know is suicidal is one of the lowest things you can do. Sending it proves your personality is nothing but a trail of slime between the dumpster you came from and wherever your trashy leaking ass is right now.

Thanks for proving your true character. You’re somebody who is both cruel and too spineless to put their name on what they say.

You’re cowardly bullies and nothing more.

To the people dealing with this kind of anon bullshit, you’re worth more than their trashy words want you to believe. Don’t give in to them. Rise above it. They choose hate. You don’t have to absorb their self loathing or reflect it back. You’re not a mirror or a black hole. You are a light and they are mere shadows hiding behind their gray masks.

143 notes View Post

spectrum-speculation

6 years ago