The Prettiest Star

Advent Day 6...
This is one if the brand new stars that are part of Aberdeen's new Xmas decorations.
But that is not the only new thing star related I want to tell you about.
Scientists this week confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet that is quite possibly the best chance to find life outside of our planet. The planet, Kepler 22-b, was glimpsed through the Kepler telescope, launched in 2009 by NASA on a planet-hunting mission; it evidently orbits a star like our sun and occupies a space known as the "Goldilocks zone", an area around a star in which the atmosphere of planets are not too hot or not too cold for life to flourish. Kepler 22-b's atmosphere reportedly has a pleasant temperature of 22 degrees Celsius.
So far, Kepler 22-b isn't the only potential Earth 2.0 that the telescope has discovered: Of the 2326 planets it has found with the potential of harbouring life, 207 are Earth-sized and 139 have other attributes that make them the most credible candidates. Scientists, earlier this year, ranked the most liveable alien worlds. By their measures, Kepler 22-b would rank high on that list. Said Max Read at Gawker, "Guys! Twinsies!? [W]e are ready to move any minute now." Why? Well, explained REad, though NASA isn't quite sure, "we've talked to some sources who tell us that on Kepler 22-b, people are always nice to each other, all the time, and no one ever gets fat, and the subway is never late."
But is it really Earth 2.0? If it sounds a bit like science fiction - or at least a movie that's in theatres now - that's because it kind of is. Though Kepler 22-b is being reported as "Earth 2.0?, many differences suggest the planet may not be habitable. For one thing, Kepler is about 15 percent closer to its sun than Earth does and scientists are unclear about the extent to which Kepler's atmosphere is composed of gas and liquid. Chief Kepler scientist William Borucki said the planet's atmosphere could be closer to that of Neptune, predominantly gas with only a rocky core. Kepler is also 2.4 times the size of our planet, a size that may be problematic for encouraging life. Though Kepler could harbour nascent forms of aquatic life, the focus remains on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).