Astronomers Confirm 'Earth Twin'

Has anyone told Michael O'Leary?

He's already taken options on Kepler 22-a for the airport....just a short tranfer shuttle away...

If you're looking for a place to get away from it all ...

? Really ? (existence confirmed) "of an Earth-like world orbiting a star like our Sun in its habitable zone - at a balmy 22C."

Why don't we add that it also has some of the whitest sandy beaches in the universe with the most beautiful shimmering aqua-teal waters (with such a low salt content that you can drink it!) ever imagined.

This article reeks the same as another recent post, deserving identical response.

Facts are facts, and supposition is just that; nothing more.

"However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid."

So ... if it turns-out to be a big ball of cold iron with a thin dust-like coating and a mile or so atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, will it be worth the $30 trillion dollars of additional DEBT and 'mega-years' spent to go there and "check-it-out"...?

I'm not saying astronomers should stop researching 'the heavens', nor am I suggesting that discussions and 'planning' for possible (future) intergalactic travels should be ceased.

I simply wish that such articles would stick to the facts, and strive to convey a realistic (not "science-fictional") account of the relevance of such discoveries as they arrive with increasing frequency.

And it'd be GREAT to see a 'crop' of successful commercial ventures accomplished in space (safely, with SOME longevity to them), before *our* {taxpayer} dollars are poured-into the dreams of the esoteric-few.

"Punch-away!!"

At 2.4 time the size of Earth.

Lets say the environment is comparable so the make up is about the same. Wouldn't that mean that the radius is 2.4 times as large as Earths so gravity is something like 13.96 Gs?

So you would live in a pool just to keep your own weight from killing you.

I'll pass.

Hmfff. This was featured on the TV news as well, using the same "artist's rendition" of the planet - one announcer said "It even looks a bit like earth". Some people watching this are surely deceived. Not that I object to artists working for NASA but really, they have all these super images of real things, then they slip in a fake?

Re: "Some people watching this are surely deceived." ... Amen! "Dollars-to-donuts" such statements are all-about getting 'John-Q-Public' hyped-up and willing to *accept* the country going into enormous debt for the "space-race".

Some have (probably / already) been driven to fear another country dominating space, and thus, the world. Others just can't wait to find life elsewhere in the universe, so as to 'justify' their non-belief in a deity...

Each and every U.S. citizen [that's me, YOU (excluding some of y'all, of course), each of our children, our brothers and/or sisters, etc etc etc] already now owes $279,738 <Link] on our national debt!

Think about that ... this is NOT what we need to pay for the up-and-coming needs of our country; maintenance, etc...the things our taxes are SUPPOSED to be going towards. THAT money still needs to be paid year-after-year-after-year! THIS figure ($279,738) refers STRICTLY to the DEBT we owe, which is growing for each of us daily. Not simply by the ongoing wasteful funding of 'basically worthless' projects, but by the staggering "piling-on" of interest charges as well.
How're YOU gonna pay YOUR share...?

How many here ... considering the above ... still think it's worth the country going further into debt, for the sake of people tens-of-generations from now...?