NASA discovers Earth’s ‘bigger, older cousin’ orbiting Sun-like star

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has spotted an Earth-like planet orbiting around a Sun-like star found in a habitable zone most similar to our own. The exoplanet, Kepler-452b, was found 1,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, the star that is most comparable to our Sun.

Kepler-452b is about 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth, with NASA calling it a “super-sized” Earth — rather than classifying it in the gas giant category like Jupiter. Although NASA could not determine if the planet is rocky like ours or has water or air yet, it is the closest match thus far.

“Today, Earth is a little less lonely,” Kepler researcher Jon Jenkins said. “We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment. It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star, longer than Earth. That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet.”

Planetary scientists say there is a strong chance the planet has a rocky surface and would most likely be thicker than Earth with active volcanoes. The planet “almost certainly has an atmosphere,” Jenkins said.

It takes 385 days to for Kepler-452b to orbit its star, making it a year, much similar to Earth’s 365-day year. Its parent star is 6 billion years old, roughly 1.5 billion years older than our Sun. Their star has about the same temperature, is about 20 percent greater in brightness, and about 10 percent larger in diameter.

“On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0.”

This news comes at an exciting time as Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner just announced $1 million worth of support in findings of aliens on other worlds.

Source: Extreme Tech