Heres what we know about the real alien planet inspiring Pluribus

Here's what we know about the real alien planet inspiring 'Pluribus' Elisha Sauers NASA's moon and Mars missions , chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers , and jetting above the clouds . Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, and The Capital in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, , and Best in Show for narrative storytelling. For each year she has covered space, Sauers has won national recognition , including first place for her National Headliner Awards Sex in Space series. Send space tips and story ideas to or text 443-684-2489. Follow her on X at [email protected] . @elishasauers Read Full Bio In Apple TV’s Pluribus , a faint radio signal from deep reshapes humanity, and the source, astronomers learn, is Kepler-22b, a world that exists far beyond our solar system. space During episode 8 , Carol and Zosia look for its star through a telescope. "I’m not sure I’m looking in the right spot," Carol says. "I mean, I see the Swan, I think." You May Also Like After getting her bearings - and Zosia eliminating the light pollution by turning off all the lights - Carol announces she sees the star, Kepler-22. "And the planet, which you can’t see, is Kepler-22b. That’s our name for it. We have no idea what they call it," Zosia says. "Sometimes we close our eyes and try to picture it." For fans wondering how much science sits behind the fiction, the answer is more than you might think. But what we actually know about this real exoplanet is far less than scientists would like. (We don't have a hive mind working it.) Is Kepler-22b a real planet? NASA discovered Kepler-22b in 2009 using data from its namesake, the , a mission designed to look for planets around other stars. Other observatories were used to confirm the findings in 2011. Kepler Space Telescope But Kepler did not grab a photo of the planet. Instead, it watched for tiny dips in a star’s brightness. When a planet crosses in front of its star, it blocks a small amount of light. Catch that dimming a few times at regular intervals, and astronomers can validate the existence of a planet. This is called the " transit method " of planet detection, but you can think of it as watching for cosmic blinks. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . "Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, who led the team that discovered Kepler-22b, in a statement back then. "The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season." Does Kepler-22b have air and water? Kepler-22b orbits a star similar to the sun , though it's slightly smaller...

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