Kepler-186f was discovered in the Kepler 186 system by the Kepler telescope in April 17, 2014. Kepler-186f is the first relatively Earth sized planet to be discovered in the “Goldilocks Zone”. The “Goldilocks Zone” is the zone where a planet orbiting a star can sustain water and support life, where it is not to hot or not too cold. Kepler-186f is the first planet to have been discovered that was the relative size of Earth. Most other planets that have been discovered in the Goldilocks Zone have been at lest 40% larger than the Earth. The discovery of this planet helps support the theory of there being a planet that is exactly like the Earth.

The Kepler satellite was launched March 7, 2009.  The spacecraft is scheduled to observe for 6 years so this year is its last. Bill Borucki and A. L Summers started the idea for Kepler in 1984. Kepler has discovered over 1,000 planets some habitable and some not. With all the different planets its discovered it’s not difficult to believe there are many more planets out there. The satellite is named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler because he was the first person to describe the motions of the planets around the sun.

Johannes Kepler was born December 25, 1571. He was a mathematician, astronomer, and an astrologer. He was a key figure in the 17th century revolution of science. He is mostly known for his laws of planetary motion. The works he did provided a foundation for one of Isaac Newton’s theory of universal gravitation. The modern satellite Kepler is named after him and explores space today.

Kepler-186f orbits its star, an M-dwarf star, in the Kepler-186 system, every 130 days. The system is in the constellation Cygnus. The M-dwarf it orbits is half the mass of the sun. Even though it is in the habitable zone does not mean it’s habitable. Being habitable largely depends on what type of atmosphere the planet has.
There have been other planets discovered in their stars habitable zone. The discoveries help support the theory that we are not alone in the universe. The Kepler satellite is the main satellite that has discovered most habitable worlds. It has discovered planets like Kepler-62f, 62e, 69c, and 22b.

Other NASA projects have devoted their time to finding true Earth twins with life. The satellites are scouring the universe for Earth twins that orbit the same star type, same density, same mass, same landscape, same atmosphere, and same layers. The satellites haven’t found any Earth like worlds yet but I think that they will either in the near future or in a couple 1,000 years.

A M-dwarf star isn’t visible by the naked eye because it’s smaller and much dimmer than the sun. M-dwarfs are by far the most common star around. The M-dwarfs make up some 70% of all the stars in the universe. The M-dwarfs were considered to not be able to support life. SETI Institute, or search for extraterrestrial intelligence, in Mountain View reconsidered the question of if live can be supported by M-dwarfs. The SETI institute is building a huge radio telescope array to search for signals from extraterrestrial life.