NASA found "Earth 2.0", named Kepler452b

[Shana09 5,769]

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.” 

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

"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."

Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.

“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," said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who led the team that discovered Kepler-452b. "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.”

To help confirm the finding and better determine the properties of the Kepler-452 system, the team conducted ground-based observations at the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. These measurements were key for the researchers to confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-452b, to refine the size and brightness of its host star and to better pin down the size of the planet and its orbit.

The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The research paper reporting this finding has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.

In addition to confirming Kepler-452b, the Kepler team has increased the number of new exoplanet candidates by 521 from their analysis of observations conducted from May 2009 to May 2013, raising the number of planet candidates detected by the Kepler mission to 4,696. Candidates require follow-up observations and analysis to verify they are actual planets.

Twelve of the new planet candidates have diameters between one to two times that of Earth, and orbit in their star's habitable zone. Of these, nine orbit stars that are similar to our sun in size and temperature.

“We've been able to fully automate our process of identifying planet candidates, which means we can finally assess every transit signal in the entire Kepler dataset quickly and uniformly,” said Jeff Coughlin, Kepler scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who led the analysis of a new candidate catalog. “This gives astronomers a statistically sound population of planet candidates to accurately determine the number of small, possibly rocky planets like Earth in our Milky Way galaxy.”

These findings, presented in the seventh Kepler Candidate Catalog, will be submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. These findings are derived from data publically available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

Scientists now are producing the last catalog based on the original Kepler mission’s four-year data set. The final analysis will be conducted using sophisticated software that is increasingly sensitive to the tiny telltale signatures of Earth-size planets.

Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

 

 

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-kepler-mission-discovers-bigger-older-cousin-to-earth

 

Here is a small list I found which highlights what it has and its about:

• It's the smallest exoplanet discovered to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone of a G2-class star, just like the Earth and the Sun.
• Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet.
• It's likely rocky.
• While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer.
• The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun.
• Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.
• The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.

• They also said that the planet is likely to have lots of clouds and possibly active volcanoes

• They also said that it receives about 10% more energy than the earth does because of the proximity and age of the nearby star, I think this would mean it would have a little bit of a higher temperature

• Also since it is 6 billion years old there is way more time than we have had on Earth for life to have developed given the chance

• For clarity, Kepler-452 is the star, and Kepler-452b is the planet

 

Its the only planet we found that seems habitable AND orbits around a star just like our sun (there are different types of sun). All of the above just shows that...its so much like us. Its still so far away tho.

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

ALIENS!!!!! bwahahaha. Seriously though.

[Shana09 5,769]

ALIENS!!!!! bwahahaha. Seriously though.

 

Its like over a billion years older than us. If life started around our time and intelligent species came around the time we formed on earth then they gotta be more advanced than us. That means they can visit us!

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

Its like over a billion years older than us. If life started around our time and intelligent species came around the time we formed on earth then they gotta be more advanced than us. That means they can visit us!

 Maybe they already have

[Robbie the Wise 5,050]

Its like over a billion years older than us. If life started around our time and intelligent species came around the time we formed on earth then they gotta be more advanced than us. That means they can visit us!

Maybe they already have

Don't worry we got Will Smith...

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

Don't worry we got Will Smith...

 

 

[Philip Ellwell 5,487]

Well, this is getting into weird territory. A planet that's possibly usable for life out in the solar system?

Next we'll end up shipping people out there or something.

[Shana09 5,769]

Well, this is getting into weird territory. A planet that's possibly usable for life out in the solar system?

Next we'll end up shipping people out there or something.

 

Its not in our solar system.

Well we do that with fantasy/sci-fi shows and movies and such.

I'm just wondering how deformed the children will be though cross-species.

 Maybe they already have

 

I agree.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Shana09

[Robbie the Wise 5,050]

You would.....

[Swordinger 110]

Still, at 1200 ly away from Earth. Pretty darn far, far away.

 Maybe they already have

 

Or perhaps, they got extinct. The average lifespan of a species is less than 100,000 years. We humans have been around for pretty much that time period, and the more we survive the more the possibilities of our end grow! So, maybe any civilization that might have existed on the planet is already gone, who knows since when!Furthermore, life on that planet could have been wiped out by an important impact, due to an asteroid for example. If there's something very important for Life to continue on a planet is the presence of a "Good Jupiter", a gas giant that can very easily disturb the orbit of dangerous asteroids taking them away from the habitable planet.In our case, Jupiter is that gas giant. Thanks to it, life has been able to survive for at least, 3.5 billion of years, with quite a few important impacts due to asteroids. Also, this Earth 2.0 is maybe sterile, lifeless. Maybe the process needed for non-living matter to gather and create self-replicating molecules hasn't happened, yet. We'll never know much about this planet, unless we send probes to check the situation.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Swordinger

[Kaweebo 3,617]

Also since it is 6 billion years old there is way more time than we have had on Earth for life to have developed given the chance

obligatory text

Edited July 23, 2015 by Kaweebo

[Daniel Black 1,981]

You have been too cosmic recently Shana . One thing sure for it, as light takes some amount of time to travel between one point and another, probably it has exploted already... 

O.o or time is irrelevant and just 2+2 is 25.  who knows?

 

ALIENS!!!!! bwahahaha. Seriously though.

Aliens... aliens everywhere...

[Weedanort 8,786]

 

*Roger intensifies

[Shana09 5,769]

obligatory text

 

You laugh at that but NASA literally stated that in their conference. I'd take their word if anyones.

 

 

You have been too cosmic recently Shana . One thing sure for it, as light takes some amount of time to travel between one point and another, probably it has exploted already... 

O.o or time is irrelevant and just 2+2 is 25.  who knows?

 

Aliens... aliens everywhere...

 

I love my aliens stuff.

It'll take so many years, more than 1,400. We can't travel at the speed of light yet so we wont be able to make it in, lets say, 1,400 years.

So by exploited you mean like a way to get there? Lmao not possible. I just hope this just funds a mission there, specifically to the point where we could send a probe.

[Toominator 916]

Edited July 23, 2015 by Toominator

[Shulk 8,623]

Well, this is getting into weird territory. A planet that's possibly usable for life out in the solar system?

Next we'll end up shipping people out there or something.

There are actually a few moons in our solar system that are viewed as potential candidates for life, namely Titan and Europa. Regardless, it's still exciting to hear that there are exoplanets that could support life as well! This new one in particular sounds really interesting.

[Philip Ellwell 5,487]

There are actually a few moons in our solar system that are viewed as potential candidates for life, namely Titan and Europa. Regardless, it's still exciting to hear that there are exoplanets that could support life as well! This new one in particular sounds really interesting.

It also reminds me of The Martian Chronicles... 

[Hardrada 117]

You laugh at that but NASA literally stated that in their conference. I'd take their word if anyones.

 

 

 

I love my aliens stuff.

It'll take so many years, more than 1,400. We can't travel at the speed of light yet so we wont be able to make it in, lets say, 1,400 years.

So by exploited you mean like a way to get there? Lmao not possible. I just hope this just funds a mission there, specifically to the point where we could send a probe.

I think he meant to say "Exploded".

[Shana09 5,769]

I think he meant to say "Exploded".

 

Oh that makes more sense thanks.

Well we can't rule it out anyways. Planets just don't explode. Worst case scenario is that it can't support life anymore.