New data shows Earth-like planet is uninhabitable

A planet identified last month as possibly able to support human habitation has been reclassified to uninhabitable after new findings revealed the original diagnosis was based on an error.

The planet, called KOI 326.01, was initially thought to be only a little smaller than Earth and able to sustain liquid water with an average temperature of about 59 C. But the astronomers at NASA’s Kepler mission who made the classification changed their decision once they discovered a nearby star had skewed their original diagnosis.

Discover Magazine recently reported that KOI 326.01 has two bright stars in its vicinity. Scientists originally thought one was brighter and therefore the star around which the planet orbits, but new information suggests the other star might actually be the planet's sun.

That detail threw off the Kepler team's calculations.

That sun's presence suggests the planet is much larger and hotter than initially believed, and as a result, it is now believed to be unsuitable to host human life.

The Kepler mission monitors fluctuations in star light created by planets passing in front of the stars. In a statement to the magazine, Kepler mission member Natalie Batalha said they are not certain which of the two stars KOI 326.01 is orbiting but in either case, it does not look hopeful.

"The details of the planet need to be hammered out, but this certainly means that this is not an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone," she said.

The Kepler program’s goal is to determine how many Earth-sized planets exist within our region of the Milky Way galaxy. To date, the program has found 1235 candidate planets which could possibly be comparable to the Earth — 15 of those have been confirmed as actually similar.