NASA on Thursday announced that its Kepler telescope has discovered what is being described as the most Earth-like planet to date.
The newly confirmed Kepler-452b is the first near-Earth-size planet ever discovered orbiting in the habitable zone — the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface — of a G2-type star, just like our sun, NASA said. The discovery of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.
And out of all of those planets, Kepler-452b and its star "most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement. "This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0."
Since Kepler launched in 2009, 12 planets less than twice the size of Earth have been discovered in the habitable zones of their stars. At this point, scientists don't know if Kepler-452b can support life or not.
What is known is that Kepler-452b shares many characteristics with Earth. It's about 60 percent larger in diameter than our planet, and its orbit is just 5 percent longer: 385 days. Its parent star, Kepler-452, is 6 billion years old — 1.5 billion years older than our sun — but has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter with a 10 percent larger diameter.
While scientists are unsure of its mass and composition, previous research suggests Kepler-452b has a good chance of being rocky, thanks to its size.
"We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth's evolving environment," said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center, who led the team that discovered Kepler-452b. "It's awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth. That's substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet."
Just don't expect to take a trip there any time soon. The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, NASA said.