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| Joseph at the Garraf Astronomical Observatory |
Today, The Grandma and Joseph de Ca'th Lon have been visiting an amazing place in a beautiful range, the Garraf Astronomical Observatory.
Joseph is a great expert in Astronomy and has explained her the last news about Kepler-452b, one of the last planets that has been discoved and one very similar to the Earth.
Before visiting the Garraf Astronomical Observatory, The Grandma has studied another lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Chapter 26).
Before visiting the Garraf Astronomical Observatory, The Grandma has studied another lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Chapter 26).
Kepler-452b, a planet sometimes quoted to be an Earth 2.0 or Earth's Cousin, based on its characteristics; known sometimes as Coruscant by NASA, also known by its Kepler Object of Interest designation KOI-7016.01, is an exoplanet orbiting the Sun-like star Kepler-452 about 1,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
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| Kepler 452b |
It was identified by the Kepler space telescope, and its discovery was announced by NASA on 23 July 2015. However, a study in 2018 by Mullally et al. implied that statistically, Kepler-452 b has not been proven to exist and must still be considered a candidate.
It is the first potentially rocky super-Earth planet discovered orbiting within the habitable zone of a star very similar to the Sun.
The planet is about 1,400 light-years away from the Solar System. At the speed of the New Horizons spacecraft, about 59,000 km/h, it would take approximately 26 million years to get there.
The planet is about 1,400 light-years away from the Solar System. At the speed of the New Horizons spacecraft, about 59,000 km/h, it would take approximately 26 million years to get there.
More information: NASA
Kepler-452b has a probable mass five times that of Earth, and its surface gravity is twice Earth's, though calculations of mass for exoplanets are only rough estimates. If it is a terrestrial planet, it is most likely a super-Earth 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.
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| The Grandma is arriving to the Observatory |
The planet takes 385 Earth days to orbit its star. Its radius is 50% bigger than Earth's, and lies within the conservative habitable zone of its parent star.
It has an equilibrium temperature of 265 K, a little warmer than Earth. The host star, Kepler-452, is a G-type star that is about the same mass of the Sun, only 3.7% more massive and 11% larger.
It has a surface temperature of 5757 K, nearly the same as the Sun, which has a surface temperature of 5778 K. The star's age is estimated to be about 6 billion years old, about 1.4 billion years older than the Sun, which is 4.6 billion years old. From the surface of Kepler-452b, its star would look almost identical to the Sun as viewed from the Earth.
The star's apparent magnitude, or how bright it appears from Earth's perspective, is 13.426. Therefore, it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye.
More information: NASA
Kepler-452b orbits its host star with about 20% more of the Sun's luminosity with an orbital period of 385 days and an orbital radius of about 1.04 AU, nearly the same as Earth's (1 AU).
It is not known if Kepler-452b is a rocky planet but based on its small radius, Kepler-452b is likely rocky. It is not clear if Kepler-452b offers habitable environments. It orbits a G2V-type star, like the Sun, with nearly the same temperature and mass and 20% more luminous. However, the star is six billion years old, making it 1.4 billion years older than the Sun. At this point in its star's evolution, Kepler-452b is receiving 10% more energy from its parent star than Earth is currently receiving from the Sun.
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| Kepler's Small Habitable Zone Planets |
This in turn would be accompanied with the carbonate–silicate cycle being buffed in duration due to increased volcanic activity on Kepler-452b.
This could allow any potential life on the surface to continue to evolve for another 500–900 million years before the habitable zone is pushed out of Kepler-452b's orbit.
In 2009, NASA's Kepler spacecraft was observing stars on its photometer, the instrument it uses to detect transit events, in which a planet crosses in front of and dims its host star for a brief and roughly regular period of time.
More information: NASA
In this last test, Kepler observed 50000 stars in the Kepler Input Catalog, including Kepler-452; the preliminary light curves were sent to the Kepler science team for analysis, who chose obvious planetary companions from the bunch for follow-up at observatories.
Observations for the potential exoplanet candidates took place between 13 May 2009 and 17 March 2012. After observing the respective transits, which for Kepler-452b occurred roughly every 385 days, its orbital period, it was eventually concluded that a planetary body was responsible for the periodic 385-day transits. The discovery was announced on July 23, 2015 in an announcement made by NASA.
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| Joseph & The Grandma at the Garraf |
The Kepler spacecraft focused on a single small region of the sky but next-generation planet-hunting space telescopes, such as TESS and CHEOPS, will examine nearby stars throughout the sky.
Nearby stars with planets can then be studied by the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope and future large ground-based telescopes to analyze atmospheres, determine masses and infer compositions. Additionally the Square Kilometer Array would significantly improve radio observations over the Arecibo Observatory and Green Bank Telescope.
More information: CBS
Scientists with the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute have already begun targeting Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size world found in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. SETI Institute researchers are using the Allen Telescope Array, a collection of 6-meter telescopes in the Cascade Mountains of California, to scan for radio transmissions from Kepler-452b.
As of July 2015, the array has scanned the exoplanet on over 2 billion frequency bands, with no result. The telescopes will continue to scan over a total of 9 billion channels, searching for alien radio signals.
More information: The Independent
If we were there (Kepler 452b), we'd get stronger.
John Grunsfeld
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