Space agency's Kepler mission finds planet outside solar system that may have volcanoes, oceans and sunshine like Earth.
Kepler 452b's star is 1.5 billion years older and 10 percent brighter than our sun
Astronomers hunting for another Earth have found the closest match yet, a potentially rocky planet circling its star at the same distance as the Earth orbits the Sun, NASA has said.
Named Kepler 452b, the planet is about 60 percent larger than Earth. It could have active volcanoes, oceans and sunshine like ours, twice as much gravity and a year that lasts 385 days, scientists said on Thursday.
"Today we are announcing the discovery of an exoplanet that, as far we can tell, is a pretty good close cousin to the Earth and our Sun," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
"This is about the closest so far, and I really emphasize the 'so-far,'" he added, describing Kepler 452b as "the closest twin," or "Earth 2.0."
The planet was detected by the US space agency's Kepler Space Telescope, which has been hunting for other worlds like ours since 2009.
It takes 385 days for the planet to orbit its star, very similar to Earth's 365-day year, NASA said. And because it's spent so long orbiting in this zone -- 6 billion years -- it's had plenty of time to brew life, Jenkins said.
"That's substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet," he said in a statement.
Before the discovery of this planet, one called Kepler-186f was considered the most Earthlike, according to NASA. That planet, no more than a 10th bigger than Earth, is about 500 light-years away from us. But it gets only about a third of the energy from its star as Earth does from the sun, and noon there would look similar to the evening sky here, NASA says.
The $600 million Kepler mission launched in 2009 with a goal to survey a portion of the Milky Way for habitable planets.
From a vantage point 64 million miles from Earth, it scans the light from distant stars, looking for almost imperceptible drops in a star's brightness, suggesting a planet has passed in front of it.
It has discovered more than 1,000 planets. Twelve of those, including Kepler-425b, have been less than twice the size of Earth and in the habitable zones of the stars they orbit.
Missions are being readied to move scientists closer to the goal of finding yet more planets and cataloging their atmospheres and other characteristics.
In 2017, NASA plans to launch a planet-hunting satellite called TESS that will be able to provide scientists with more detail on the size, mass and atmospheres of planets circling distant stars.
The next year, the James Webb Space Telescope will go up. That platform, NASA says, will provide astonishing insights into other worlds, including their color, seasonal differences, weather and even the potential presence of vegetation.
Artist's impressions of exoplanets discovered by Kepler, alongside Earth. From left: Kepler-22b, Kepler-69c, the just announced Kepler-452b, Kepler-62f, Kepler-186f and, finally, our planet
sources - CNN,Aljazeera,BBC,DailyMail
Astronomers hunting for another Earth have found the closest match yet, a potentially rocky planet circling its star at the same distance as the Earth orbits the Sun, NASA has said.
Named Kepler 452b, the planet is about 60 percent larger than Earth. It could have active volcanoes, oceans and sunshine like ours, twice as much gravity and a year that lasts 385 days, scientists said on Thursday.
"Today we are announcing the discovery of an exoplanet that, as far we can tell, is a pretty good close cousin to the Earth and our Sun," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
"This is about the closest so far, and I really emphasize the 'so-far,'" he added, describing Kepler 452b as "the closest twin," or "Earth 2.0."
The planet was detected by the US space agency's Kepler Space Telescope, which has been hunting for other worlds like ours since 2009.
It takes 385 days for the planet to orbit its star, very similar to Earth's 365-day year, NASA said. And because it's spent so long orbiting in this zone -- 6 billion years -- it's had plenty of time to brew life, Jenkins said.
"That's substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet," he said in a statement.
Before the discovery of this planet, one called Kepler-186f was considered the most Earthlike, according to NASA. That planet, no more than a 10th bigger than Earth, is about 500 light-years away from us. But it gets only about a third of the energy from its star as Earth does from the sun, and noon there would look similar to the evening sky here, NASA says.
The $600 million Kepler mission launched in 2009 with a goal to survey a portion of the Milky Way for habitable planets.
From a vantage point 64 million miles from Earth, it scans the light from distant stars, looking for almost imperceptible drops in a star's brightness, suggesting a planet has passed in front of it.
It has discovered more than 1,000 planets. Twelve of those, including Kepler-425b, have been less than twice the size of Earth and in the habitable zones of the stars they orbit.
Missions are being readied to move scientists closer to the goal of finding yet more planets and cataloging their atmospheres and other characteristics.
In 2017, NASA plans to launch a planet-hunting satellite called TESS that will be able to provide scientists with more detail on the size, mass and atmospheres of planets circling distant stars.
The next year, the James Webb Space Telescope will go up. That platform, NASA says, will provide astonishing insights into other worlds, including their color, seasonal differences, weather and even the potential presence of vegetation.
sources - CNN,Aljazeera,BBC,DailyMail
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