The exoplanet Kepler-twenty-two-B
Has temperatures designed for you and me.
(“What is an exoplanet?” you might say.
It’s one outside our system, far away.)
Pools of liquid water could exist there,
So life just might be able to subsist there.
It orbits in a habitable zone.
You could have a place there all your own!
The planet’s over twice as large as Earth,
A size that gives it quite an ample girth.
Two-hundred ninety days make up its year.
It’s six-hundred light years away from here.
And here’s the only bad news that I’ve got:
It’s surface may be rock, or maybe not.
A rocky surface is what we’d prefer.
It’s gonna be a while, though, til we’re sure.
They didn’t find this place with naked eyes.
Astronomers use Kepler, a real prize.
The sharp-eyed scope stares at a slice of cosmos
To see if any life exists besides us.
The tool revolves in space for a good view.
That’s how it sees what’s lost to me and you.
When Kepler spies a world it’s his own newbie.
That’s why this one is “Kepler-twenty-two-B.”
The telescope’s our planet-spotting friend.
But who is watching at the other end?
Reference
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/NASA-Confirms-First-Earth-Sized-Planet-in-a-
Sun-like-Stars-Habitable-Zone-135132293.html
(Copyright 2018 James Mansfield Nichols. All rights reserved.)
