NASA Announces Discovery of Most Earth-like Planet

NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States, announced on Thursday, July 23, the discovery of the first planet that is similar in size to Earth, orbiting its star at a habitable distance and almost at the same distance as Earth from the Sun. This is the first time in history that a planet with such Earth-like characteristics has been discovered in the universe, and its discovery has generated tremendous excitement among scientists and astronomers. According to CNN, although it is still unclear whether this planet is composed of water, air, soil, and rock like Earth, the discovery of such a planet is considered a significant and unprecedented achievement. The new planet has been named Kepler-452b in honor of its discovering spacecraft, Kepler. Kepler-452b is located 1,400 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Cygnus and is approximately 60% larger than Earth. NASA describes this planet as 'the older and larger cousin of Earth.' The distance of this planet from its star is almost similar to the distance from Earth to the Sun; this distance is referred to in astronomy as the habitable zone, where the possibility of water existing as a liquid, the main ingredient for life, is present. It is estimated that the gravitational force on Kepler-452b is nearly twice that of Earth. Although the distance of this planet from its star is slightly greater than the distance from Earth to the Sun, because the star of the newly discovered planet is brighter, Kepler-452b receives almost as much energy from it as Earth does from the Sun. John Jenkins, an official of this project, stated that 'Earth is a little less lonely today.' Mr. Jenkins added that the newly discovered planet 'almost certainly has an atmosphere,' although it cannot yet be said what it is made of. The orbit of Kepler-452b around its star takes 385 Earth days, which is very similar to Earth's orbit. NASA estimates that this planet has been orbiting its star at this distance for over six billion years, which is a suitable time for life to potentially develop on it. Before the discovery of Kepler-452b, another planet named Kepler-186f was considered the most Earth-like planet, located 500 light-years away from us, ten times larger than Earth, but receiving only one-third of the energy that Earth receives from the Sun. The $600 million Kepler project began in 2009 with the goal of discovering potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy.