Is That A Planet? =U

[Aisha deCabre]

Y'know, I'm surprised that with the amount of geeks people fascinated by such things, like me, around here, nobody's posted this yet. x3  But, I found it pretty cool.

A new planet discovered within the habitable zone of star system Kepler 22.

Go ahead, start the discussion alien jokes. I'll actually be geeking out on the possibilities like a good dabbler of evolutionary biology. x3

[SquirrelWizard]

Homosapiens are oggling our planet, invasion is imminent, break out the koolaid.

[Kafzeil]

Homosapiens are oggling our planet, invasion is imminent, break out the koolaid.

Don't be like that Wiz. I, for one, welcome our New Alien Overlords. And when they arrive, I would like to let them know my knowledge of Earth would be very useful for enslaving the rest of my race.

All I ask is my own penthouse office in the Citadel and a nice title to go with my new role in subjugating this planet.

[Alondro]

Kepler 22-b doesn't excite me as much as one would think.  For instance, its estimated surface temperature is dependent on its atmospheric density and composition. 

In general, I would expect a larger-than-Earth planet to have a very dense atmosphere.  Even if if it's only 2-3 times as dense as Earth's, that vastly increases its thermal retention, raising the temperatures far too high.

Plus, given that such a planet would also certainly have a large, active core and mantle, the volcanic activity could potentially be intense and spew vast amounts of CO2 and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, turning it into a massive Venus analogue. 

Super-earths are much more likely to support life if they are in an orbital position comparable to Mars.  Even Mars would be a perfectly pleasant, temperate world if it possessed an Earth-type atmosphere.  It is a virtiually airless, cold world today because it lacks a magnetic field to prevent the solar wind from ionizing and stripping away its atmosphere.