Do you know the Miller’s planet? It is a planet that is shown in the movie “Interstellar.

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What if I say it exist! 635 light-years from where you are sitting, way out in outer space,
lies a planet. The first planet to be discovered inside the habitable zone of a Sun-like
star. Its name is Kepler 22-b. When a planet is located within a star’s habitable zone, it
means that there is a chance that liquid water exists on its surface. And where there’s
water, there is also the possibility of life.

Kepler 22-b is an exoplanet. Exoplanet means a planet that is outside of our Solar
system. To find an exoplanet you need an incredibly special telescope, and you need to
be very skilful. To spot an exoplanet is often not easy. How did the scientist find Kepler
22-b? They used a method called the transit method. They watched Kepler 22-b’s star
and notice from a distance that one planet was changing its brightness over time.

What are the characteristics of Kepler 22-b? The mass of this exoplanet is 36 times that
of Earth with a radius 2.5 times larger than our world. This shows that Kepler 22-b is
such a big planet. 1 year in this planet is 290 days and if you stayed in this planet for 1
hour, it is equivalent to 7 years on Earth. This is due to the distance from our Earth to
Kepler 22-b. Its simple physics. Another fascinating information about this exoplanet, it
is 15% closer to its star than we are to our Sun. If Earth was that close to the Sun, we
might get fried.

Despite it being close to its star, it still gets the same amount of sunlight as we get. This
is because the size of their star is a bit smaller and colder compared to our Sun. The
average temperature of Kepler 22-b could be around 15 to 22°C. This temperature is like
Earth’s spring weather. Some studies shows that Kepler 22-b is rotating on its side like
our very own Uranus. This means that its north and south pole are covered in either
sunlight or darkness. This might be extremely dangerous for humans because it can
change the temperature from boiling to freezing easily. But no need to worry, studies
shows that this exoplanet might be covered in an ocean 50m deep. The ocean can
function as a natural climate control.

Can we travel to the Kepler 22-b? Is it possible for humans to reach alive? Even if you
are travelling at the speed of light, it would take you about 635 years to reach there. The
only way for humans to reach Kepler 220b alive is to hibernate through the journey
inside a device that preserves our body, like a cryogenic sleep, like the device that is
used in the movie “Passengers”. A good for you, NASA has already developed a
cryogenic sleep chamber that can lower a human body temperature to as low as 32°C.
This can trigger natural hibernation. Even if humans get in the hibernation pod or
cryogenic sleep chamber, it will still have a low possibility to reach there safely. It is a
very risky trip.

Kepler 22-b is an incredibly unique planet that has been found by the scientist. There
are some possibilities for us humans to live on that exoplanet, but it would take us
century to achieve that technology. Even if we reach Kepler 22-b, we still do not know
what lies there, what is the gravity is like and what dangers it brings. That is some stuff
about which we should worry. In the meantime, let us just enjoy our planet try to learn
more about our world.