Discovery of a new exoplanet, the most similar to Earth ever recorded – dh.be

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Astronomers have discovered a new exoplanet which could be the most similar to Earth ever recorded, NASA announced Thursday.

Earth is located in orbit around a distant star. It is the same distance from its star than Earth’s sun. She goes around in 385 days: it may well be possible to find water in the liquid state would allow the existence of life

Located 1,400 light-years. Earth, the Kepler exoplanet dubbed 452b orbits a star whose characteristics are also very similar to the sun. Thus, the star is more massive only 4% and 10% brighter than our sun, but is 1.5 billion years older.

The discovery of Kepler 452b “allows us to move forward how many habitable planets may exist “in our galaxy, succession Joseph Twicken, the scientist responsible for the Kepler mission scientist at SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute.

Kepler 452b has a radius 60% larger than the Earth and is likely to be rocky with a thick atmosphere and a large amount of water. It could also experience volcanic activity, according to the astronomers.

Kepler 452b is part of twelve new exoplanets in the catalog of the discoveries of Kepler telescope. To be accepted, these exoplanets should have a diameter that is less than twice that of Earth and must be in orbit around a star at a distance or top hot nor too cold, where water can exist in liquid state at their surface. This potentially make them habitable.

On these twelve candidate exoplanets, Kepler 452b is the first to be confirmed as a planet by other observations with ground-based telescopes.

” The continuation of the study of other exoplanets candidates in this catalog and a final review of other scientific data from Kepler will help us find the smallest and most interesting planets, “also explained Joseph Twicken.

“This will also allow us to better assess the frequency of habitable worlds” outside our solar system, has he added.

The fact that the star around which revolves Kepler or 452b 1.5 billion years older than the sun, which is very similar also can give us an idea of ​​what could happen to the Earth in the distant future.

“If Kepler 452b is a rocky planet, its position relative to its star could indicate that it has entered a period of strong warming in the history of the climate, “notes Doug Caldwell, a SETI astronomer working on the mission Kepler.

“The increase in the energy released by the aging star could heat the surface and cause evaporation from the oceans, which would find it, resulting in the loss forever of water planet “, he said.

” Kepler could thus 452b currently undergoing what the Earth will experience in more than a billion years when the sun will age and become brighter, “explains the scientist.

The catalog of NASA discoveries of Kepler currently has a total of 4,696 exoplanet candidates.

Kepler, a mission of 600 million dollars, peered over 150,000 stars after launch in 2009 in search of planets beyond our solar system.

space telescope broke down mid-2013 when two of its gyroscopes stopped working. Exoplanets discussed Thursday by NASA had been observed before Kepler fails.