"The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth ""The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth"" is the ninth episode of the American documentary television series """". It premiered on May 4, 2014 on Fox, and aired on May 5, 2014 on National Geographic Channel. The episode was directed by Brannon Braga, written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter, and featured the voice of Amanda Seyfried as geologist Marie Tharp. The episode explores the history of the Earth starting with the period of the Late Heavy Bombardment, approximately ""3.8 to 4.1 Billion years ago during which the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth and were battered"
"may be orbiting Sun-like stars. The nearest such planet may be 12 light-years away. Scientific findings since the 1990s have greatly influenced the scope of the fields of astrobiology, models of planetary habitability and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). NASA and the SETI Institute have proposed categorising the increasing number of planets found using a measure called the Earth Similarity Index (ESI) based on mass, radius and temperature. According to this measure, as of 23 July 2015, the confirmed planet currently thought to be most similar to Earth on mass, radius and temperature is Kepler-438b. Scientists estimate that there"
"potentially habitable exoplanet to Earth. The closest potentially habitable exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b at 4.2 light years. Second is Ross 128 b at 11 light years away, followed by the unconfirmed planets Tau Ceti e and f, just under 12 light years distant. Fourthly is Wolf 1061c at 13.8 light years from the sun. Gliese 832 c has a mass of approximately 5.2 times that of Earth. If it had the same density of Earth it would have a radius of around 1.75 or possibly the planet could have a higher density with a smaller radius. Its temperature is"
"Proxima Centauri b Proxima Centauri b (also called Proxima b or Alpha Centauri Cb) is an exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to the Sun and part of a triple star system. It is located about 4.2 light-years (1.3 parsecs, 40 trillion km, or 25 trillion miles) from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, making it the closest known exoplanet to the Solar System. Proxima Centauri b orbits the star at a distance of roughly with an orbital period of approximately 11.2 Earth days, and has an estimated"
"the closest planet to Earth, Venus has been a prime target for early interplanetary exploration. It was the first planet beyond Earth visited by a spacecraft (""Mariner 2"" in 1962), and the first to be successfully landed on (by ""Venera 7"" in 1970). Venus's thick clouds render observation of its surface impossible in visible light, and the first detailed maps did not emerge until the arrival of the Magellan orbiter in 1991. Plans have been proposed for rovers or more complex missions, but they are hindered by Venus's hostile surface conditions. Venus is one of the four terrestrial planets in"
"are gravitationally bound to the star. Almost all of the planets detected so far are within the Milky Way. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that extragalactic planets, exoplanets further away in galaxies beyond the local Milky Way galaxy, may exist. The nearest exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b, located 4.2 light-years (1.3 parsecs) from Earth and orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. The discovery of exoplanets has intensified interest in the search for extraterrestrial life. There is special interest in planets that orbit in a star's habitable zone, where it is possible for liquid water, a prerequisite for life on"
"Kepler-20f Kepler-20f (also known by its Kepler Object of Interest designation ""KOI-70.05"") is an exoplanet orbiting the Sun-like star Kepler-20, the second outermost of five such planets discovered by NASA's ""Kepler"" spacecraft. It is located approximately 929 light-years (285 parsecs, or about km) from Earth in the constellation Lyra. The exoplanet was found by using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. The planet is notable as it has the closest radius to Earth known so far. Kepler-20f is very likely (>95% chance) a rocky"
"of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Comparatively, Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, has a semi-major axis distance of 0.39 AU. Proxima Centauri b receives about 65% of the amount of radiative flux from its host star that the Earth receives from the Sun - for comparison Mars receives about 43%. Most of the radiative flux from Proxima Centauri is in the infrared spectrum. In the visible spectrum the exoplanet receives only ~3% of the PAR (400-700 nm) of Earth irradiance - for comparison Jupiter receives 3.7% and Saturn 1.1%. So it would usually not get"
"Venus's orbit is the closest to circular, with an eccentricity of less than 0.01. When Venus lies between Earth and the Sun in inferior conjunction, it makes the closest approach to Earth of any planet at an average distance of . The planet reaches inferior conjunction every 584 days, on average. Because of the decreasing eccentricity of Earth's orbit, the minimum distances will become greater over tens of thousands of years. From the year 1 to 5383, there are 526 approaches less than 40 million km; then there are none for about 60,158 years. All the planets in the Solar"
"that between Saturn and the Sun (11.2 AU). Alpha Centauri C, or Proxima Centauri, is a small and faint red dwarf (Class M). Though not visible to the naked eye, Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun at a distance of , being slightly closer than Alpha Centauri AB at a distance of . Currently, the distance between Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri AB is about , equivalent to about 430 times the radius of Neptune's orbit. Proxima Centauri b is an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri; it was discovered in 2016. ""α Centauri"""
"an Earth-crosser asteroid. Because of its relatively low inclination (7.34°), it is able to come close to each of these planets. Its orbit takes it within 0.021 AU of Mercury's orbit, 0.0368 AU of Venus's orbit, and 0.00989 AU of Earth's orbit. It makes frequent encounters with these inner planets. The last time it came close to Mercury, Venus and Earth was 2010, 1977, and November 12, 2004 respectively. The most recent close approach to Earth was on 11 December 2015 at about 4.2 million kilometers (2.6 million miles, 11 lunar distances). The next visit of the asteroid to Earth's"
"are easier to detect. On November 4, 2013, astronomers reported, based on ""Kepler"" data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarfs in the Milky Way. 11 billion of these may be orbiting Sun-like stars. Proxima Centauri b, located about 4.2 light-years (1.3 parsecs) from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, is the nearest known exoplanet, and is orbiting in the habitable zone of its star. The CHZ is also of particular interest to the emerging field of habitability of natural satellites, because planetary-mass moons in"
"Kepler-9d Kepler-9d, formerly known as KOI-377.03, is a planet in orbit around the sunlike star Kepler-9. Initially discovered by Kepler spacecraft, a terrestrial planet-searching satellite built and operated by NASA, Kepler-9d is most likely a Super-Earth, with an estimated radius approximately 60% larger than that of Earth's, although its exact mass cannot be determined. Kepler-9d orbits Kepler-9 every 1.56 days at a distance of .0273 AU from its star, an extremely close distance. Although Kepler-9d is the closest planet to its star in its system, it is named Kepler-9d instead of Kepler-9b because two gas giants, Kepler-9b and Kepler-9c, were"
"Luyten b Luyten b (more commonly known as GJ 273b) is a confirmed exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the habitable zone of the nearby red dwarf Luyten's Star. It is one of the most Earth-like planets ever found and is the third-closest potentially habitable exoplanet known, at a distance of 12.2 light-years. Only Proxima Centauri b and Ross 128 b are closer. Discovered alongside GJ 273c in June 2017, Luyten b is a Super-Earth of around 3 times the mass of Earth and receives only 6% more sunlight than Earth, making it one of the best candidates for habitability. In"
"Earth in the near future. On the other hand, 1992 TB can come much closer to Venus. Its next Venus encounter was in May 29, 2015, where it came from the planet. Its closest approach in the near future will be . (8035) 1992 TB (8035) 1992 TB is an Apollo asteroid, a type of Near-Earth Object. It is also a Venus-crosser and a Mars-crosser, although it doesn't make close approaches to Mars. 1992 TB makes close approaches to Earth, but often comes many times closer to Venus. Soon after the discovery of the asteroid in 1992, a close approaches"
"July 2015, Astronomy & Astrophysics said they found a planetary system with three super-Earths orbiting a bright, dwarf star. The four-planet system, dubbed HD 219134, had been found 21 light years from Earth in the M-shaped northern hemisphere of constellation Cassiopeia, but it is not in the habitable zone of its star. The planet with the shortest orbit is HD 219134 b, and is Earth's closest known rocky, and transiting, exoplanet. In February 2016, it was announced that NASA Hubble Space Telescope had detected hydrogen and helium (and suggestions of hydrogen cyanide), but no water vapor, in the atmosphere of"
"Apart from being the closest star-system to Earth's, (4.1 light-years northwest of earth) Alpha Centauri is home to both a local planning department office of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council and a race of small furry creatures (who, during the times of the Galactic Empire, ""were ""real"" small furry creatures""). Its main spaceport, Port Brasta, has a massive duty-free shopping mall, the motto of which is, ""be like the twenty-second elephant with heated value in space – bark!"" This slogan contains an ingenious pun in Centaurian that the natives find hilarious. Alpha Proxima is the smallest (and closest to Earth)"
"a planet on the etheric plane called the Violet Planet, which is apparently several dozen to several hundred light years from Earth. The Violet Planet is one of many throughout the Cosmos that serve as reservoirs for the violet flame. Omri-Tas is the ruler of the Violet Planet that is closest to Earth and which is responsible for transmitting the violet flame from the Great Central Sun of the Cosmos via the Galactic Logos to planets in Ursa Major (Our sector is reputedly 'Sector Nine' of the 48 Sectors in this spiral Galaxy). Omri-Tas or one of his representatives periodically"
"the Sun, which it orbits every 87.97 days. Kepler-9d Kepler-9d, formerly known as KOI-377.03, is a planet in orbit around the sunlike star Kepler-9. Initially discovered by Kepler spacecraft, a terrestrial planet-searching satellite built and operated by NASA, Kepler-9d is most likely a Super-Earth, with an estimated radius approximately 60% larger than that of Earth's, although its exact mass cannot be determined. Kepler-9d orbits Kepler-9 every 1.56 days at a distance of .0273 AU from its star, an extremely close distance. Although Kepler-9d is the closest planet to its star in its system, it is named Kepler-9d instead of Kepler-9b"
"Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun in the Solar System. In the Solar System, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth and slightly larger than Neptune. Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years at an average distance of . It is named after the Roman god of the sea and has the astronomical symbol ♆, a stylised version of the"
"in the WGSN's second bulletin issued in October 2016. The next additions were done on 1 February, 30 June, 5 September and 19 November 2017, and on 6 June 2018. All are included on the current List of IAU-approved Star Names, last updated on 1 June 2018. The star nearest to Earth is typically referred to simply as ""the Sun"" or its equivalent in the language being used (for instance, if two astronomers were speaking French, they would call it ""le Soleil""). However, it is sometimes called by its Latin name, Sol, in science fiction. With the advent of the"
"this current era, the nearest that Venus comes to Earth is just under 40 Gm. Because the range of heliocentric distances is greater for the Earth than for Venus, the closest approaches come near Earth's perihelion. The Earth's declining eccentricity is increasing the minimum distances. The last time Venus drew nearer than 39.5 Gm was in 1623, but that will not happen again for many millennia, and in fact after 5683 Venus will not even come closer than 40 Gm for about 60,000 years. The orientation of the orbits of the two planets is not favorable for minimizing the close"
"Kepler-186f Kepler-186f (also known by its Kepler Object of Interest designation ""KOI-571.05"") is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Kepler-186, about 582 light-years (178.5 parsecs, or nearly km) from the Earth. It is the first planet with a radius similar to Earth's to be discovered in the habitable zone of another star. NASA's Kepler spacecraft detected it using the transit method, along with four additional planets orbiting much closer to the star (all modestly larger than Earth). Analysis of three years of data was required to find its signal. The results were presented initially at a conference on 19 March"
"be terrestrial in nature and be capable of retaining an Earth-like atmosphere. The list includes planets within the range of 0.8–1.9 Earth masses, below which are generally classed as sub-Earth and above classed as super-Earth. In addition, only planets known to fall within the range of 0.5–2.0 Earth radius (between half and twice the radius of the Earth) are included. In contrast, the Earth Similarity Index uses both mass and radius as criteria. According to the size criteria, the closest planetary mass objects by known radius or mass are: This comparison indicates that size alone is a poor measure, particularly"
"two days. Gliese 832 is a red dwarf of spectral type M1.5V and apparent magnitude 8.66 located only 16.1 light-years distant; hence it is one of the nearest stars to the Solar System. A Jupiter-like planet—Gliese 832 b—orbiting the red dwarf over a period of 9.4±0.4 years was discovered in 2008. WISE 2220−3628 is a brown dwarf of spectral type Y, and hence one of the coolest star-like objects known. It has been calculated as being around 26 light-years distant from Earth. Nicknamed the spare-tyre nebula, IC 5148 is a planetary nebula located around 1 degree west of Lambda Gruis."
"than the distance from the Sun to Mercury. Its mass makes it more likely to be a Class II or Class III planet in the Sudarsky model. The presence of surface liquid water is possible on sufficiently massive satellites should they exist. Gliese 876 e, discovered in 2010, has a mass similar to that of the planet Uranus and its orbit takes 124 days to complete. Gliese 876 Gliese 876 is a red dwarf approximately 15 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. It is the one of the closest known stars to the Sun confirmed to possess"
"was found that it will pass through its perihelion (the point of its orbit where it is closest to the Sun) on 9 April 1990 at a distance of about 53 million kilometres, inside the orbit of Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. Thereafter it will move outwards again and, by good luck, it will come within 38 million kilometres of the Earth on May 25. It will be well situated in the sky for observation from the northern hemisphere after 20 April 1990 when it can be seen low above the NW horizon, just after sunset, and even"
"Gliese 832 was announced to be hosting the closest potentially habitable Earth-mass-range exoplanet to the Solar System. This star achieved perihelion some 52,920 years ago when it came within an estimated of the Sun. Gliese 832 hosts two known planets. In September 2008, it was announced that a Jupiter-like planet, now designated as Gliese 832 b, had been detected in a long-period, near-circular orbit around this star (false alarm probability thus far: a negligible 0.05%). It would induce an astrometric perturbation on its star of at least 0.95 milliarcseconds and is thus a good candidate for being detected by astrometric"
"planets, of which about 11% may be false positives. There is at least one planet on average per star. About 1 in 5 Sun-like stars have an ""Earth-sized"" planet in the habitable zone, with the nearest expected to be within 12 light-years distance from Earth. Assuming 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, that would be 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way, rising to 40 billion if red dwarfs are included. The rogue planets in the Milky Way possibly number in the trillions. The nearest known exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b, located from Earth in the"
"Wisp or Light Sail type concepts). Such a system could grow organically if space-based solar power became a significant component of Earth's energy mix. Consumer demand for a multi-terawatt system would automatically create the necessary multi-million ton/year logistical system. Distances between the planets in the Solar System are often measured in astronomical units (AU), defined as the average distance between the Sun and Earth, some . Venus, the closest other planet to Earth is (at closest approach) 0.28 AU away. Neptune, the farthest planet from the Sun, is 29.8 AU away. As of January 2018, Voyager 1, the farthest man-made"
"the Drake equation, which estimates the number of intelligent, communicating civilizations that exist in the Milky Way. There are exoplanets that are much closer to their parent star than any planet in the Solar System is to the Sun, and there are also exoplanets that are much farther from their star. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun at 0.4 AU, takes 88 days for an orbit, but the shortest known orbits for exoplanets take only a few hours, e.g. Kepler-70b. The Kepler-11 system has five of its planets in shorter orbits than Mercury's, all of them much more massive"
"visible to the naked eye in broad daylight. Orbiting within Earth's orbit, Venus is an inferior planet and never appears to venture far from the Sun; its maximum angular distance from the Sun (elongation) is 47.8°. Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's ""sister planet"" because of their similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun, and bulk composition. It is radically different from Earth in other respects. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting of more than 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth,"
"billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy. 11 billion of these estimated planets may be orbiting sun-like stars. Since there are about 100 billion stars in the galaxy, this implies is roughly 0.4. The nearest planet in the habitable zone is Proxima Centauri b, which is as close as about 4.2 light-years away. The consensus at the Green Bank meeting was that had a minimum value between 3 and 5. Dutch science journalist Govert Schilling has opined that this is optimistic. Even if planets are in the"