Two Planets Identified As Most Similar To Earth

If this is your first time visiting Bible Prophecy In The News, I'd like to invite you to subscribe to our RSS feed. Never miss an update.. Thanks for visiting!

After locating more than 340 planets orbiting other stars, astronomers have identified two that are the most similar to Earth so far.

The most recently discovered one is almost twice as large as Earth, making it the smallest exoplanet — for extra-solar planet — found to date. The second one was found in 2007, but new observations have shown that it is the only exoplanet to date that orbits its star in the so-called habitable zone, where water remains a liquid. Thus, it is the only exoplanet discovered that is likely to have oceans.

Intriguingly, both orbit the same star, a dwarf 20 light-years from Earth called Gliese 581, European researchers said Tuesday.

The identification of the small planet “is a remarkable discovery and bodes well for our eventual discovery of a true Earth-like, habitable planet,” astronomer Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington wrote in an e-mail.

Read Full Article

Venus and Jupiter To Form Triangle ‘Capstone’ With Moon

Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, have been marching toward each other for more than a month in the southwestern sky at dusk. As they’ve drawn closer together, the sight has been catching more people’s eyes, and now the show is reaching its climax.

This evening, weather permitting, you will see Venus and Jupiter blazing about a finger’s width apart at arm’s length. Look early enough and, far to their lower right, you can find the crescent moon just above the horizon.

Tomorrow evening, the two planets will be slightly closer together, and the moon will be hanging higher and nearer them.

Monday night brings the peak of the show. The two planets will remain as close as ever, and the moon will form a compact, extraordinary triangle with them.

Then on subsequent evenings, things fall apart. The moon will move farther off to the upper left, and Jupiter starts pulling away to Venus’s right.

Although the three objects look close together, looks are deceiving. The moon is 252,000 miles away. Venus is currently 370 times farther than the moon, at 94 million miles. And Jupiter, at 540 million miles, is nearly six times as far away as Venus.

To put it another way: The moon is currently 1.4 light-seconds distant, Venus is 8.4 light-minutes distant, and Jupiter is 42 light-minutes away. That’s how long the light from each has been traveling through space before it hits your eye.

Source