Download Kepler 452b:Potentially Earth like planet

Kepler 452b:Potentially Earth like planet
Abhishek Shaji
October 31, 2015
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NASA Discovers an Earth like Planet orbiting
a star just like our Sun
July 2015: 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. Kepler-452b is an exoplanet orbiting the
G-class star Kepler-452. It was identified by the Kepler space telescope, and
its discovery was publicly announced by NASA on 23 July 2015.It is the first
potentially rocky super-Earth planet discovered orbiting within the habitable
zone of a star very similar to the Sun. Using the criteria of the Earth Similarity
Index, it’s the sixth most Earth like planet know to man.
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A World too far apart
The planet is about a massive 1,400 light-years away from our Solar System
which makes our modern spacecrafts almost impossible to cover such large distance within a limited time frame.
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Properties
Kepler 452b is often called the earth’s older cousin because of it’s remarkable resemblance of the earth,Everything from the composition,planetary position,Temperature is very similar to that of the earth which makes life on Kepler
452b credible.The planet takes 385 Earth days to orbit its star, the planet is
60 percent bigger than the earth and lies within the Goldilocks zone(Habitable
zone with optimum temperature to support life) of its parent star.It’s mass is
Figure 1: An Artists conception of Kepler 452b
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Figure 2: Comparison of small planets found by Kepler in the habitable zone of
their host stars.
expected to be about 5 times that of the earth and the gravity to be twice as
much as we experience here on earth. It has a probable mass five times that of
Earth, and its surface gravity is twice Earth’s, though calculations of mass for
exoplanets are only rough estimates.
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Composition
Although the exact composition is not known, If it is a terrestrial planet, it is
most likely a super-Earth with many active volcanoes due to its higher mass
and density.The clouds on the planet would be thick and misty, covering much
of the surface as viewed from space. From the surface, its star Kepler-452 would
look almost identical to the Sun as viewed from the Earth.Though it is not yet
known if Kepler-452b is gas planet or a rocky one,it is most likely to be a rocky
planet because of it’s smaller radius.
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Parent Star
Kepler 452 is a G2V-type star like the sun with nearly the same temperature(5757±85 K) and mass(1.037+0.054−0.047 MO) and 20 percent more
luminous.However, the star is six billion years old, making it 1.5 billion years
older than the Sun.According to research,Kepler-452b is receiving nearly 10 percent more energy from its parent star than Earth is currently receiving from the
Sun.
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Conclusion
There’s always a credibility of finding life on Kepler 452b,for now it remains
a mystery but that’s never going to stop humanity from searching/solving this
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big question of finding life on other planets..
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References
• www.wikipedia.com
• News
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Picture Credits
National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)
• Figure1:http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19825
• Figure 2:http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19827
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