Kepler 452b – the landmark find in what is sure to be the first of many Earth-like planets that humanity will discover.
Kepler-452b has been described as potentially being a rocky world, with an orbit quite similar to our home planet. With over 1000 extrasolar planets discovered to date, Kepler-452b is the most Earth like of them all so far.
“Kepler-452 has similar characteristics to our sun, which makes finding a planet with an orbital period similar to Earth in this system very exciting,” said Daniel Huber of the University of Sydney. “It is the first time we have found such a planet.”
While it may be the most Earth like so far, 452b is 60 percent larger than our Earth, and a single orbit of it’s central star (equivalent to our sun) is 385 days.
Also, don’t be packing your bags for a space vacation just yet – it’s located in the Cygnus constellation, at a cool 1400 light years in distance.
Regardless of this, the fact that the planet is located in the system’s ‘goldilocks’ zone, and has an estimated age of 6 billion years, scientists believe this is well long enough for life to have evolved.
While it’s impossible to tell at this stage whether there is actually any life on the planet, it will remain a significant discovery, and an ongoing object of scientific study, especially once our telescopes become more powerful in the near future.
Check out NASA’s video below for info surrounding the exciting discovery:
