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Astronomers hunting for another earth have found what may be the closest match yet, a potentially rocky planet circling its star at the same distance as the earth orbits the sun, Nasa said on Thursday.
Not only was this planet squarely in the Goldilocks zone - where life could exist because it is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water - its star looked like an older cousin of our sun, the US space agency said.
That meant the planet, which is 1,400 light-years away and 60 per cent larger in diameter than earth, could offer a glimpse into the earth’s apocalyptic future, scientists said.
Known as Kepler 452b, the planet was detected by the US space agency’s Kepler Space Telescope, which has been hunting for other worlds like ours since 2009.
“Kepler 452b is orbiting a close cousin of our Sun, but one that is 1.5 billion years older,” Nasa said.
Its star is 4 per cent more massive than the sun and 10 per cent brighter.
If the planet is rocky, and scientists believe that it has a better than even chance of being just that, then it could be in the midst of a fearful scenario, as the heat from its dying star evaporates Kepler 452b’s lakes and oceans.
“If Kepler 452b is indeed a rocky planet, its location vis-a-vis its star could mean that it is just entering a runaway greenhouse phase of its climate history,” said Doug Caldwell, a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute scientist working on the Kepler mission.
“The increasing energy from its ageing sun might be heating the surface and evaporating any oceans. The water vapour would be lost from the planet forever,” he added.
“Kepler 452b could be experiencing now what the earth will undergo more than a billion years from now, as the Sun ages and grows brighter.”
The Kepler mission launched in 2009 to search for exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, particularly those about the size of earth or smaller.
“Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years - another earth,” Nasa said.
On Thursday, Nasa released the latest catalogue of exoplanet candidates, adding more than 500 new possible planets to the 4,175 already found by the space-based telescope.
“This catalogue contains our first analysis of all Kepler data, as well as an automated assessment of these results,” said SETI Institute scientist Jeffrey Coughlin.
The new catalogue includes 12 candidates that are less than twice the diameter of earth and which are orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars.
Of those 12 new candidates, Kepler 452b “is the first to be confirmed as a planet,” Nasa said.
Kepler identifies possible planets by watching for dips in the brightness of stars, which could be caused by a planet passing between the star and the telescope.
Other scientific tools are needed to judge whether the planet is gassy or rocky.
 
 


Earth 2.0: Nasa finds new planet which could hint at a future apocalypse here

This artist's impression compares earth (left) to the new planet, called Kepler-452b, which is about 60 per cent larger in diameter. Photo: Nasa

Scientists use space telescope to find 'exoplanets' that might support life

Artist's rendering of exoplanet HD 189733b. Photo: EPA

Two new earth-like planets 'capable of hosting life' discovered by Nasa telescope

A 'super earth' - larger than our planet but with some similarities in terrain and temperature - spotted by the Kepler telescope. Photo: Nasa

The Kepler space telescope has scoured more than 150,000 stars for planets beyond our solar system since its launch in 2009. Photo: AFP

Kepler telescope spies rocky 'Mega-Earth'

An artist's impression of Kepler-10c. Photo: Reuters

Hunt for alien life homes in on Earth 2.0, a planet of similar size to our own

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Astronomers have found a planet similar to earth and its star appears to be an older cousin of our sun


Earth 2.0: Nasa finds new planet which could hint at a future apocalypse here

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Astronomers have found a planet similar to earth and its star appears to be an older cousin of our sun

Astronomers have found a planet similar to earth and its star appears to be an older cousin of our sun