Exoplanet Research Paper

In the future when the brink of human extinction draws close, it is essential to secure a second alternative to preserve mankind: evacuating to an exoplanet that supports life. This is easier said than done because of the limited evidence humans can obtain today. Due to the lack of innovative technologies to draw conclusive results, researchers can at least inform that an exoplanet needs to have similar attributes with Earth in order to become a candidate to choose from. Another major problem is to understand not just the exoplanet to inhabit, but also the star revolving around it which can play a huge factor in the possibility of survival. Nevertheless, researchers have already found a potential exoplanet that can sustain vital surroundings …show more content…
Kepler-186f orbits an M-type star named Kepler-186, orbited by a total of five planets. Kepler-186 has a temperature of 4017 Kelvin and is about 4 billion years old, about 600 million years younger than the Sun, with the age of 4.6 billion years old and a temperature of 5778 Kelvin. The star's apparent magnitude is 14.62 which is dim compared to the brightest object in the sky, the Sun, with an apparent magnitude of -27. As a result, Kepler-186f is not realistically possible with existing telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope to be discovered. Kepler-186f orbits its star with about four percent of the Sun's luminosity with an orbital period of one hundred and thirty days and an orbital radius of about 0.40 times that of Earth's Kepler-186f's location dependent upon its atmospheric characteristics. Other four planets around Kepler-186, Kepler-186 b, c, d, and e, are too near the star and is not possible for water to exist due to the inferno temperature. However, Kepler-186f is within the habitable zone for sufficient light to grow organisms and produce water. The four innermost planets are likely tidally restricted, but Kepler-186f is in a higher orbit, where the star's tidal effects are much weaker, so the time could have been insufficient for its spin to slow down significantly; still, there is still a fifty percent chance that Kepler-186f is tidally locked. With Kepler-186f's minute obliquity and eccentricity, it may not have tilt-induced seasons as Earth and Mars do. Yet, if an unidentified planet orbit between the star and Kepler-186e, then the axial tilt could be larger. If such a planet exists, it cannot be more massive than Earth because it could cause orbital instabilities. Overall, one review evaluation in 2015 concluded that Kepler-186f was likely one of the best candidates for being potentially habitable exoplanets because of the presence of

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