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from the when-are-we-gonna-invent-the-warp-drive dept.
NASA has announced today the discovery of Kepler-452b, an Earth-like planet in a Sun-like star's habitable zone:
Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.
While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.
The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.
(Score: 2, Informative) by sparky on Friday July 24 2015, @07:37PM
Agreed. I've spent way too much time at work today coming up to speed on NASA's Kepler mission.
I really like this summary [nytimes.com] of results.