Do you know about Kepler 452B?

- Ranjani.S, Std V A

If all of a sudden we cannot live on Earth, we will mostly go to an Exoplanet, which is suitable for life. You may ask ‘What is an Exoplanet?’ and the answer to that question is: An Exoplanet is a planet that exists outside of our solar system. Most exoplanets orbit a star such as the planets in our solar system which orbit the sun, our star. Exoplanets are hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit and are very hard to see with telescopes. So, astronomers use other ways to detect and study these exoplanets. They search for exoplanets by looking at the effects these planets have on the stars they orbit.

One such exoplanet is Kepler 452B. This planet is popularly known as ‘Earth 2.0’. NASA believes that this exoplanet is the closest planet to us with conditions similar to Earth and the star it orbits is similar to the Sun. Kepler 452B is 60% larger than Earth and the star it orbits is 10% larger than our sun and is 20% more luminous than the sun. One year in Kepler 452B is 385 days long, about 20 days more compared to Earth.

While it is possible to live on Kepler 452B, we do not know about its atmosphere, composition, and other factors. So, we cannot be sure whether it is truly habitable. The idea of humans migrating to Kepler 452B may or may not happen as interstellar travel is not possible as of now. The distance from Earth to Kepler 452B is about 1800 light years away which is around 17.029 trillion kilometers away. But if it becomes possible, then one we will all travel there like in a science-fiction movie.