Kepler-452b is a super-Earth exoplanet that’s also called ‘Earth 2.0’. It is orbiting within the inner edge of the habitable zone of the Sun-like star Kepler-452 and is the only planet in the system discovered by Kepler. Habitable zone or the Goldilocks zone is an area around the star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet of a G-2 type star and thus possibly support life. Kepler-452b was discovered in 2015. It is located about 1,402 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus.
The planet’s radius is 1.63 times that of the Earth. Even though there’s not much known about the planet, it might have a rocky composition. If that’s the case, Kepler-452b would be about 5 times the mass of our Earth. However, there is a similar probability that the planet could be like Neptune, with a small rocky core surrounded by a thick mantle of ice and a gaseous envelope. So its mass could be lesser. Kepler-452b has an orbit period of 384.8 Earth days while it orbits the host star at a distance of 156.5 million kilometers. Coincidentally, this is the same distance between Earth and the Sun.
The host star is about 20% brighter than the Sun and only 3.75% more massive than the Sun; Kepler-452b receives just 10% more solar energy than the Earth. The star has a surface temperature of 5757 K, nearly the same as the Sun, which has a surface temperature of 5778 K. From the surface of Kepler-452b, its star would look almost identical to the Sun as viewed from the Earth. The star Kepler-452 is supposedly 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years more than our Sun. It is at its stage of life when its radius and luminosity begin to increase, suggesting that Kepler-452b may have undergone a runaway greenhouse effect. This happens when the surface of that planet experiencing the runaway greenhouse effect boils away, similar to what happened on Venus.
The exoplanet was identified by the Kepler space telescope, and its discovery was announced by NASA on 23rd July 2015. If it is a terrestrial planet, it is most likely a super-Earth planet with many active volcanoes due to its higher mass and density. The clouds on the planet would be thick and misty, covering much of the surface as viewed from space. At present, it would take 28 million years to reach Kepler-452b. More advanced technology can shorten the trip; but even with exceptional engines, reaching Kepler-452b seems like an impossible mission.
