Scientists make major discovery, find Earth-like exoplanet that is 300 light-years from us

A team of NASA scientists, with aid of reanalysed information through NASA’s Kepler telescope, have found an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting within star's habitable zone, area which surrounds a star in which rocky planet could support water in its liquid state.

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Kepler-1649c – Exoplanet exploration

Scientists were able to discover this planet, kwn as Kepler-1649c, when y were going through old observations from Kepler, that was alrey retired two years ago. previous searches with a computer algorithm were t able to identify it, but researchers h reviewed Kepler data again and were able to identify it as a new planet.

Out of all exoplanets that were discovered by Kepler, this distant planet is located around 300 light-years away from Earth. It is also quite similar to Earth when it comes to its size and estimated surface temperature.

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How big is new planet?

newly discovered planet is just 1.6 times bigger than Earth and amount of starlight it receives from sun is about 75 per cent. This indicates that exoplanet's temperature could be similar to that of Earth and re wouldn’t be much difference.

However, a major difference between newly discovered planet and our home planet is that unlike Earth, new planet orbits a red dwarf. transatlantic scientists have also revealed that this of star is kwn for its stellar flare-ups that could make planet’s environment quite difficult for potential life to thrive.

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As per Thomas Zurbuchen, associate ministrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, this intriguing and distant planet gives an even greater hope that a second Earth lies among stars, which is waiting to be discovered. He also ded that data which h been gared from missions like Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will continue to yield interesting discoveries as people in science community refine ir abilities to look for promising planets year after year.

However, re are a number of things that are still t kwn about this newly discovered planet, including its atmosphere. It is also t clear if it actually has one. 

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Im credits: Exoplanet NASA