The Kepler mission was launched in 2009 to search for exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, particularly those about the size of Earth or smaller. “Kepler 452b could be experiencing now what the Earth will undergo more than a billion years from now, as the Sun ages and grows brighter.” The water vapor would be lost from the planet forever,” he added. “The increasing energy from its aging sun might be heating the surface and evaporating any oceans. Tantalising evidence has been uncovered for a mysterious population of free-floating planets, planets that may be alone in deep space, unbound to any host star. “If Kepler 452b is indeed a rocky planet, its location vis-a-vis its star could mean that it is just entering a runaway greenhouse phase of its climate history,” said DougĬaldwell, a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute scientist working on the Kepler mission. If the planet is rocky, and scientists believe that it has a better than even chance of being just that, then it could be in the midst of a fearful scenario, as the heat from its dying star evaporates Kepler 452b’s lakes and oceans. Its star is four percent more massive than the Sun and 10 percent brighter. “Kepler 452b is orbiting a close cousin of our Sun, but one that is 1.5 billion years older,” NASA said in a statement. Kepler telescope glimpses population of free-floating planets London, UK (SPX) Tantalising evidence has been uncovered for a mysterious population of 'free-floating' planets, planets that may be alone in deep space, unbound to any host star. Known as Kepler 452b, the planet was detected by the US space agency’s Kepler Space Telescope, which has been hunting for other worlds like ours since 2009. That means the planet, which is 1,400 light-years away, could offer a glimpse into the Earth’s apocalyptic future, scientists said. Not only is this planet squarely in the Goldilocks zone - where life could exist because it is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water - its star looks like an older cousin of our Sun, the US space agency said. Miani : 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, NASA said on Thursday.
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