Nasa confirms discovery of exoplanet just 21 light years away

This older, bigger cousin to Earth is called Kepler-452b. However, the star it orbits is visible to the naked eye.

With its size and mass computable, the density will easily be determined making it easier for scientists to know whether it is rocky (like Earth), gaseous (like Jupiter), or icy (like Pluto).

Move over Kepler-452b there’s a new exoplanet on the block. He led the team that discovered Kepler-452b.

Astronomers have also found evidence of five planets, some of them possibly rocky, circling the star Tau Ceti, which is 11.9 light-years away. “And I really emphasize the ‘so far.’ “.

The celestial body is part of a system of four planets detected recently within the distinctive Cassiopeia constellation, a mere 21 light years away. Yet with the new planet being in our own backyard, in cosmic terms, it could also help astronomers to calibrate better direct detection methods. As such, it likely will be a favorite for researchers for years to come. There is one that is at least 2.7 times as massive as Earth, but it could be much larger.

The planet was confirmed to have a mass 4.5 times compared to Earth, and requires a three-day orbit around its star. This is because we can examine its atmosphere as it passes in front of its star.

The planet is thought to have a rocky surface with geological activity, including volcanoes, the press release said. At a distance of just 21 light-years, it is by far the closest transiting planet to Earth, which makes it ideal for follow-up studies.

Transiting is rare because of the different planets’ orientation to Earth.

Why is this faraway planet so important?

“The discovery of intelligent life does not mean there’s another Jesus”, he insisted, because “the incarnation of the son of God is a unique event in the history of humanity, of the Universe”. “It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth”. There’s a real chance we’re talking about a terrestrial, potentially habitable exoplanet, with more similarities to our home world than any other place in our Solar System.

SCOTTISH astronomers are part of a team that today announced the discovery of a new “super-Earth”.

The fact that we are detecting as many near-Earth like worlds as we are, given the relatively small number of stars that we’ve looked at, tells us that such worlds must be very common.

Kepler 452b is the first of those 12 to be confirmed as a true planet, thanks to ground observations.

© 2015 Associated Press under contract with NewsEdge. It is much more like Earth than 134b, as it maintains a 385-day orbit around a star that is just 20 percent brighter than the Sunday.