CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—Scientists have identified a “close cousin” to Earth that’s orbiting a sun-like star and might harbor life.
The researchers announced their discovery on July 23 based on observations from NASA’s Kepler space telescope.
“It is the closest thing that we have to another place that somebody else might call home,” said Jon Jenkins, the lead data analyst from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California.
This older, bigger cousin to Earth is called Kepler-452b. What makes this planet remarkable is that it orbits its star at about the same distance that Earth orbits the sun at. What’s more, its home star seems similar to our sun.
Of those 500-plus new potential planets, 12 are both less than twice Earth’s diameter and orbiting in the so-called habitable zone of their star, also known as the just-right Goldilocks zone.
Kepler-452b is the first of those 12 to be confirmed as a true planet, thanks to ground observations.
Altogether, the catalog now includes 4,661 exoplanet candidates. Slightly more than 1,000 of them are confirmed to be planets.
