NASA Finds 'Earth's Bigger, Older Cousin'

[Zeller]

"NASA said Thursday that its Kepler spacecraft has spotted "Earth's bigger, older cousin": the first nearly Earth-size planet to be found in the habitable zone of a star similar to our own.

Though NASA says it can't say for sure whether the planet is rocky like ours or has water and air, it's the closest match yet found.

"Today, Earth is a little less lonely," Kepler researcher Jon Jenkins said.

The planet, Kepler-452b, is about 1,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. It's about 60% bigger than Earth, NASA says, and is located in its star's habitable zone -- the region where life-sustaining liquid water is possible on the surface of a planet.

A visitor there would experience gravity about twice that of Earth's, and planetary scientists say the odds of it having a rocky surface are "better than even."

While it's a bit farther from its star than Earth is from the sun, its star is brighter, so the planet gets about the same amount of energy from its star as Earth does from the sun. And that sunlight would be very similar to Earth's, Jenkins said.

If the assumptions of planetary geologists are correct, he said, Kepler-452b could have a thicker atmosphere than Earth's, as well as active volcanoes.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/23/us/feat-nasa-kepler-planet-discovery/index.html​

 

[OBJ]

I'm interested in stuff like this, thanks for the share.

 

[Cengox]

bi bana denk gelmedi ulan bak gene 25 karakter

 

[dagger]

Very interesting, if it sustains life that will be amazing!

 

[RS4]

its in the "Goldilocks zone", theirs are few of these found already, they haven't found any the same size yet, also even if there was life we would never see it, and another thing, if there were people there with any intelligence we would have picked up some sort of frequency by now.

 

[blast]

This is one of my favorite types of news articles. Space stuff is just so interesting because there is so little we know about it.

If you find any more about this you should follow up on this post and tag me!

 

[Devil]

1,400 light years from earth? Sucks we'll never be alive to see it. If we ever will that is

 

[FRIGHTENING]

I dam well know. I am not the only one wondering what is up there.

 

[Manjiro]

hopefully in the distant future humanity can spread out in the world