Super-Earths

Guest: David Latham, Ph.D., Senior Astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge.  The rocky, blue planet we call home has the perfect conditions for human life—lots of water, an atmosphere and an array of habitable temperatures.  So as astronomers search for life beyond Earth, they’re looking for planets with similar conditions.  Last month, NASA’S Kepler Mission seeking for planets beyond our solar system added 500 new candidates to the list. And of those, one in particular moved us a step closer to finding what one NASA administrator calls “Earth 2.0.” It’s called Kepler-452b.