Kepler-69 and the Solar System
<p><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/kepler-69-diagram.html">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/kepler-69-diagram.html</a>
</p><p><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/742705main_Kepler-69-Diagram_lg_full.jpg">http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/742705main_Kepler-69-Diagram_lg_full.jpg</a>
</p><p>The diagram compares the planets of the inner solar system to Kepler-69, a two-planet system about 2,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The two planets of Kepler-69 orbit a star that belongs to the same class as our sun, called G-type. 
</p><p>Kepler-69c, is 70 percent larger than the size of Earth, and is the smallest yet found to orbit in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Astronomers are uncertain about the composition of Kepler-69c, but its orbit of 242 days around a sun-like star resembles that of our neighboring planet Venus. The companion planet, Kepler-69b, is just over twice the size of Earth and whizzes around its star once every 13 days. 
</p><p>The artistic concepts of the Kepler-69 planets are the result of scientists and artists collaborating to help imagine the appearance of these distant worlds. 
</p><p>The Kepler space telescope, which simultaneously and continuously measures the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, is NASA's first mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets around stars like our sun. 
</p>
Image credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech
NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech
2011-11-10 05:13:45
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/kepler-69-diagram.html">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/kepler-69-diagram.html</a>