The Scoop on Earth 2.0

 

Image Source: Pixabay.com

Yesterday, July 24, 2015, NASA made a statement saying that they believe that the Kepler spacecraft may have found Earth’s bigger, older cousin. The Kepler spacecraft  is a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. It was named after the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler and launched on March 7, 2009.

Earth 2.0 is known to NASA as Kepler-452b. Astronomers believe that Kepler-452b might be small and cool enough to host liquid water on its surface – and might therefore be hospitable to life. So far, Kepler-452b is the closest resemblance that astronomers have found to our home. According to BBC News “Kepler-452b, orbits a parent star which belongs to the same class as the Sun: it is just 4% more massive and 10% brighter. Kepler-452b takes 385 days to complete a full circuit of this star, so its orbital period is 5% longer than Earth’s.”

What do you think? Is Kepler-452b or Earth 2.0 a habitable place for life? Tell us your thoughts!