NASA Finds Most Earth-Like Planet Yet

Researchers have discovered the most similar planet yet to Earth, 1,400 light-years away. Kepler-452b orbits its star in 385 days, just 20 days longer than our own year. Its star is just 4% larger, a billion and a half years older, and 20% brighter than the sun, meaning 452b is firmly in the “goldilocks” habitable zone that puts the odds of it being rocky, like Earth, between 50-62%.

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Researchers have discovered the most similar planet yet to Earth, 1,400 light-years away. Kepler-452b orbits its star in 385 days, just 20 days longer than our own year. Its star is just 4% larger, a billion and a half years older, and 20% brighter than the sun, meaning 452b is firmly in the “goldilocks” habitable zone that puts the odds of it being rocky, like Earth, between 50-62%.

Scientist Jeff Coughlin says “this is the first possibly rocky, habitable planet around a solar-type star.” All 11 previously discovered exoplanets of similar size and orbit circle smaller, cooler stars.

The planet was found by the Kepler telescope, which searches for possible Earth-twins by observing periodic dips in the brightness of stars as planets pass before them, like the way our moon causes an eclipse here on Earth.

The Kepler telescope stared at a single patch of the Milky Way for four years before its pointing system failed in 2013, but the mission still succeeded in cataloguing more than 4,600 exoplanet candidates. This means astronomers still have huge amounts of data to sort through and make new findings, like this discovery. With 452b, just over 1,000 of the exoplanet candidates have now been confirmed.

20 years ago this fall, the first exoplanet orbiting a distant star was discovered.

And with the successor to Kepler launching in 2017, the pace of discovery is about to increase substantially. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (or TESS), will be able to cover hundreds of times as much sky as the Kepler mission, and will identify prime targets for further examination by the successor to Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, set for an October 2018 launch.

Astronomers can now project with some degree of confidence that of the 600 stars within 30 light-years of Earth, there should be roughly 60 potential earth-twins.

So, according to Dr. Didier Queloz, the man who co-discovered that first earth-like planet 20 years ago, “If we keep working so well and so enthusiastically, the issue of life on another planet will be solved.”

Like and share this video to help others on our little rock become aware of this good news. For the video editor Brendan Plank, I’m his brother Bryce, thanks for watching.

[Ostnizdasht]

I'm really sad we'll never land on these planets in our life time.

[ninearthify]

if only human beings could use all this intelligence to care for one another

[virgosun_]

i asked my dad if he thinks there is life outside of earth and he said yes so i asked why he thinks aliens don't come visit earth and he was like "we're a small speck of dust in the milky way, aliens know better than to waste their time coming to earth"

[quantumferret]

We are either alone or not



Both are truly terrifying

[MatthewJS]

1400 light years?
I guess I should go work on my warp travel equation.

[alqiamirzan]

i hope KFC and starbucks open in there

[Jestrath]

Anyone else want to go there really bad? Can you imagine what the life like look like there? The nature would be pristine there I bet. That is if intelligent life like us isn't there. Either way it would be awesome to see. Intelligent alien life, awesome. Alien life in pristine natural conditions, also awesome.

[TheDailyConversation]

One step closer to answering the ultimate question: are we alone?

[Kalaniritchie]

The people on Kepler are watching a similar video about Earth 😭

[six]

Two vids in one day? Thank you, its really nice to have great well done content twice a day

[awaisanwar]

The real question is, how are we alone, with so much yet to discover?

[octoaiden]

The most earth-like planet?







Earth

[vickyyen]

how selfish of us, after hurting our mother earth and then we are just gonna leave her

[LemmyTho]

I hope if we get their we dont destroy it like we did to earth

[jefffuehr]

they'll find a lot of life on another planet. it's just a matter of time. and when they do, i can't wait to hear the surprised response from all the religious people. because nowhere in the bible does it say that God created life on earth AND on planet 226zelba6.

[BlackRifleStudios]

What if aliens are looking at Earth like: hey we found a New Lukos (what ever they might call their planet)

[noyes]

“There are two possibilities, either we are alone in the universe, or we are not.”

“Both are equally terrifying.”

[Limonadesyrup]

I FOUND A EARTH LIKE PLANET! point ur telescope on the ground lol

[flubsdubz]

in the future maybe this planet has species on it

well if that exist maybe scientist build a space shuttle to Kepler 452b


made up date:4/10/3034

if i was alive then

[mohamedkhattab]

so, after I read all the comments . If you are sad of not going to another planet you can study well (P.S. i hate studying ) so we can reach what we want and you all can travel yourselves without helping .