NASA discovery of planet remarkably like ours gives hope for 'second Earth'

[kevindavis007]

NASA's now retired Kepler Space Telescope is the mission that keeps on giving. On Wednesday, NASA announced the discovery of what might be a very Earth-like exoplanet found lurking in old Kepler data.

Kepler ran out of fuel and went to sleep in 2018, but scientists are still combing through the observations it made during its epic hunt for planets beyond our own solar system. 

Kepler-1649c is located 300 light-years from Earth. NASA described it as the "most similar to Earth in size and estimated temperature" out of the thousands of exoplanets discovered by Kepler. The planet is located in its star's habitable zone, a region where it's possible for liquid water to exist.

The fascinating exoplanet is slightly larger than Earth. It receives 75% of the amount of light we get from our own sun, which could put it in line with Earth temperatures as well. The planet was originally misidentified by a computer algorithm, but a team of scientists found it during a review of Kepler data.

Read More: https://www.isn-news.com/2020/04/this-intriguing-distant-world-gives-us.html

[Joe Wooten]

I seriously doubt it is habitable. It is in a very close orbit around a small M class star that probably flares like Proxima Centauri and is likely tidally locked. WE need tp be looking for second earths around K, G, and F stars.

[EdinVA]

300 light years away.... yea, holding my breath