Another Earth? Take a Look at Kepler 452-B
Great News for the search for alien life! We can’t be sure, but we may have finally found the first truly Earth like planet circling another star! Tom Risen has the details!
Newly-discovered planet Kepler-452b is in the habitable zone of a solar system 1,400 light years away, NASA announced Thursday.NASA has announced the news mankind has long been waiting for: They’ve finally found a planet that’s a lot like Earth.
The NASA space-based Kepler telescope discovered the planet, labeled Kepler 452-b, which is described as Earth’s bigger cousin, said Jon Jenkins, data analysis lead at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The orbit of the planet, around a star that seems similar to our Sun, falls inside the same habitable zone that supports life on Earth, so it “almost definitely has an atmosphere but the details are unknown,” Jenkins said during a press call with reporters on Thursday.
“It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth,” he said. “That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet.”