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NASA finds planet Kepler 452b, part of an Earth-sun twin solar system - Technology & Science - CBC News
Updated
NASA finds planet Kepler 452b, part of an Earth-sun twin solar system
'Cousin' planet around sun-like G2 star is 60 per cent bigger than Earth
CBC News Posted: Jul 23, 2015 9:38 AM ET Last Updated: Jul 23, 2015 2:17 PM ET
Kepler 452-b is about 60 per cent larger to Earth and orbits at a similar distance to Earth around a sun-like star. (NASA)
(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
NASA has announced the discovery of a new planet outside our solar system that it describes as the "closest twin" to Earth found to date.
Kepler 452b, discovered using the planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope, is about 60 per cent larger than Earth, making it a type of planet called a super-Earth, but scientists think it likely to be rocky, NASA researchers said at a news conference today.
It orbits a star similar to our sun at a distance similar to the distance between the Earth and the sun.
John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate in Washington, said the planet appears to be the "closest twin, so to speak, to Earth … that we've found so far."
However, he said it's more like a "close cousin" than an exact twin because of its larger size, which would give it five times the mass of the Earth and double the gravity. But it's less than twice the diameter of Earth, which means it's likely to have a rocky surface. Planets larger than that are not solid, but gassy, like Jupiter.
Planetary geologists and atmospheric scientists think Kepler 452b would have a thicker atmosphere than Earth, with more cloud cover, and is likely to still have very active volcanoes, said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
The star it orbits is the first G2 star — similar to our sun — ever found with a small planet in its habitable zone.
That star is about six billion years old, the researchers estimate, or about 1.5 billion years older than our sun.
"That's substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet," Jenkins said.
The planet is about 1,400 light years away in the constellation Cygnus.
Because Kepler 452b orbits at an Earth-like distance from a sun-like star, the amount of sunshine it gets is expected to be similar to that on Earth, said Jenkins.
"It would feel a lot like home," he added.
Kepler has found a dozen planets less than twice the size of Earth that reside in the habitable zone of their host star, which range from M stars that are significantly cooler and smaller than the sun to the G stars that include the sun. The sizes of the planets are enlarged by 25 times compared to the stars. The Earth is shown for reference. (NASA Ames/JPL-CalTech/R. Hurt)
Astronomers have been keen to find rocky planets in the "Goldilocks" or "habitable" zones of their stars — the region in which the temperature is right for liquid water, and therefore life as we know it, to exist. If there are a lot of them, as this and other recent discoveries suggest, the chances are very good that there is other life in the universe besides us.
Kepler was launched in 2009 and specifically designed to hunt for planets around distant stars. It looks for a dip in the light from a star as the planet passes in front of it, blocking part of the light. So far, it has found more than 3,000 planet candidates and confirmed more than 1,000 planets.
By May 2013, two of the wheels used to point the telescope at specific places in the sky had stopped working, severely handicapping its hunt for new planets.
That hasn't ended the announcement of new planets discovered by the telescope, though, as the data collected earlier is still being analysed.
Kepler is now collecting other kinds of data to help astronomers understand other aspects of astrophysics, such as how planets formed
Updated
NASA finds planet Kepler 452b, part of an Earth-sun twin solar system
'Cousin' planet around sun-like G2 star is 60 per cent bigger than Earth
CBC News Posted: Jul 23, 2015 9:38 AM ET Last Updated: Jul 23, 2015 2:17 PM ET
Kepler 452-b is about 60 per cent larger to Earth and orbits at a similar distance to Earth around a sun-like star. (NASA)
(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
NASA has announced the discovery of a new planet outside our solar system that it describes as the "closest twin" to Earth found to date.
Kepler 452b, discovered using the planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope, is about 60 per cent larger than Earth, making it a type of planet called a super-Earth, but scientists think it likely to be rocky, NASA researchers said at a news conference today.
It orbits a star similar to our sun at a distance similar to the distance between the Earth and the sun.
John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate in Washington, said the planet appears to be the "closest twin, so to speak, to Earth … that we've found so far."
However, he said it's more like a "close cousin" than an exact twin because of its larger size, which would give it five times the mass of the Earth and double the gravity. But it's less than twice the diameter of Earth, which means it's likely to have a rocky surface. Planets larger than that are not solid, but gassy, like Jupiter.
Planetary geologists and atmospheric scientists think Kepler 452b would have a thicker atmosphere than Earth, with more cloud cover, and is likely to still have very active volcanoes, said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
The star it orbits is the first G2 star — similar to our sun — ever found with a small planet in its habitable zone.
That star is about six billion years old, the researchers estimate, or about 1.5 billion years older than our sun.
"That's substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet," Jenkins said.
The planet is about 1,400 light years away in the constellation Cygnus.
Because Kepler 452b orbits at an Earth-like distance from a sun-like star, the amount of sunshine it gets is expected to be similar to that on Earth, said Jenkins.
"It would feel a lot like home," he added.
Kepler has found a dozen planets less than twice the size of Earth that reside in the habitable zone of their host star, which range from M stars that are significantly cooler and smaller than the sun to the G stars that include the sun. The sizes of the planets are enlarged by 25 times compared to the stars. The Earth is shown for reference. (NASA Ames/JPL-CalTech/R. Hurt)
Astronomers have been keen to find rocky planets in the "Goldilocks" or "habitable" zones of their stars — the region in which the temperature is right for liquid water, and therefore life as we know it, to exist. If there are a lot of them, as this and other recent discoveries suggest, the chances are very good that there is other life in the universe besides us.
- NASA finds more Earth-like planets outside our solar system
- Another Earth: What are the chances?
- 'Most Earth-like planet' discovered by NASA
Kepler was launched in 2009 and specifically designed to hunt for planets around distant stars. It looks for a dip in the light from a star as the planet passes in front of it, blocking part of the light. So far, it has found more than 3,000 planet candidates and confirmed more than 1,000 planets.
By May 2013, two of the wheels used to point the telescope at specific places in the sky had stopped working, severely handicapping its hunt for new planets.
That hasn't ended the announcement of new planets discovered by the telescope, though, as the data collected earlier is still being analysed.
Kepler is now collecting other kinds of data to help astronomers understand other aspects of astrophysics, such as how planets formed
- 'Planet Hunters' on The Nature of Things
- Billions of Earth-like planets in Milky Way: study
- 5 rocky planets found in very ancient 'solar system'
- NASA finds more Earth-like planets outside solar system
- 'Most Earth-like planet' discovered by NASA
- Earth-sized planet found in star's habitable zone
- 5 possible Earth-like habitable planets found
- Earth-like planets Gliese 581 g and d likely don't exist, study says
