Kepler-452b is older, bigger Earth cousin

[Oaky]

Ooh, this is exciting.

News | NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

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."

Kepler-452b is older, bigger Earth cousin | Science Wire | EarthSky

Dreamers and visionaries have long imagined finding another Earth. This week (July 23, 2015) at a NASA teleconference, scientists with the planet-finding Kepler mission took a step closer to that dream with the discovery of the first nearly Earth-sized planet orbiting in the habitable zone – or zone where liquid water can exist – of its sunlike star. The planet is located 1,400 light-years away, in direction our constellation Cygnus the Swan. It has many similarities – and also some differences – to the world on which we stand. The Astronomical Journal has accepted the research paper reporting this finding. NASA also said:

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 first near-Earth-size planet is called Kepler-452b. It’s the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone of its star. Considered a super-Earth-size planet, it’s 60 percent larger in diameter than our world. Its orbit around the sun last 385 days, only 5 percent longer than Earth’s orbit. It’s star is a G2-type, like our sun. Kepler-452b is 5 percent farther from its parent star than Earth is from our sun.

While its mass and composition aren’t yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

It’s 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun.

It has the same temperature as Earth, and appears 20 percent brighter.

Nasa finds ‘another Earth’ in Milky Way which ‘would feel a lot like home’ - Telegraph

Nasa has found a twin Earth orbiting a star like the Sun in the Milky Way which scientists say ‘would feel a lot like home.’

Kepler 452b - which has been dubbed Earth 2.0 - is six billion years old, has a 385 day year and orbits its star at the same distance as us. It is 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.
It is believed to be rocky, with active volcanoes and is so like Earth that Nasa believes it is possible that life once inhabited the planet.
Scientists said that the sunshine is so similar that plants could survive if taken to Kepler 452b.

'Earth 2.0' found in Nasa Kepler telescope haul - BBC News

Kepler-452b orbits at a very similar distance from its star, though its radius is 60% larger.
Mission scientists said they believed it was the most Earth-like planet yet.
Such worlds are of interest to astronomers because they might be small and cool enough to host liquid water on their surface - and might therefore be hospitable to life.
Nasa's science chief John Grunsfeld called the new world "Earth 2.0" and the "closest so far" to our home.
It is around 1,400 light years away from Earth.

 

[1487610420]

What if it's futile, cuz we already live in the most suitable planet for life, the universe trial and error way?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I always adore hearing about new extrasolar planets. They fascinate me.

So these planets are actually in the habitable zone?

I remember back when some people thought our solar system might be unique, which seemed absurd to me.