NASA ’s Kepler ballistic capsule has been softly chugging along since 2009 , depend for other planet that could potentially host sprightliness revolve Sun - similar asterisk . TodayNASA announcedthat the space observation tower has discovered a planet similar to Earth , only older and larger .
DubbedKepler-452b , the fresh discover planet is one of12 fresh small " inhabitable zone " campaigner planets . That mean they ’re locatedin a region not too close or too far from their star , and could potentially have fluent water pooling on the surface . Kepler-452b is the small major planet of the gang , but is still 60 percentage large than Earth . Its slew and theme have yet to be mold , but it is expected to have a jumpy terrain .
Despite their size difference , Earth and Kepler-452b do n’t behave that differently . Earth revolve around the sunlight once every 365 days , while Kepler-452borbits its parent star ( Kepler-452 ) once every 385 day . The new planet ’s orbit is 5 percentage longer , and it ’s locate 5 percentage further aside from its parent lead .
Kepler-452 is about 20 percent hopeful and 1.5 billion twelvemonth older than the Sun , but they are just about the same size .
“ We can imagine of Kepler-452b as an older , biggercousin to Earth , bring home the bacon an opportunity to understand and shine upon Earth ’s evolving surround , " said Jon Jenkins , Kepler information analytic thinking lead at NASA ’s Ames Research Center , who lead the team that discovered Kepler-452b . " It ’s awe inspiring to count that this major planet has pass 6 billion geezerhood in the inhabitable zone of its star ; longer than Earth . That ’s substantial chance for living to arise , should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet . ”
Kepler-452 and its planets are locate in the configuration Cygnus , about1400 light - old age away .
The find of Kepler-452b means there are now 1030 confirmed planets , according to NASA . There havebeen 4696 planetcandidates detected by the Kepler mission , but they necessitate follow - up observations to assert if they are actual planets . Twelve are pretty hefty , withdiameters up to twice the size of Earth ’s , with orbits in their star topology ’s habitable zona . Nine orbit stars that are exchangeable to our Sun in size and temperature .
" This is really the first step , and world ’s first step , to reply that question , ' Are we alone in the universe ? ' " say Jenkins in aNASA crush conference . " You and I wo n’t be traveling to these planets , but our children ’s child ’s baby may . "
