NASA has reported the discovery of a planet that is the closest match yet to Earth.
The planet, known as Kepler 452b, was detected by the NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, which has been exploring for other worlds like Earth since the last six years, reported news.com.au.
The Kepler mission was launched in 2009 to search for exoplanets. Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system that are about the size of Earth.
"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 452b is a rocky planet orbiting its star at the same distance as the Earth orbits the Sun and its star resembles Sun, NASA said. The planet is in the Goldilocks zone which means that the temperatures on the planet are neither too hot nor too cold and can support liquid water.
"Today we're announcing the discovery of an exoplanet that as far as we can tell, is a pretty close cousin to the Earth and our sun.
"This is about the closest twin to Earth 2.0 that we've found so far, and I really emphasise so far", said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for Nasa's mission directorate.
Kepler 452b takes 385 days to orbit its star and its radius is 60 percent larger than Earth. It is 1,400 light years away from earth.
The Guardian reported that the Kepler 452b receives 10 percent more energy than the Earth as its star is 1.5bn years older, 4 percent more massive and 20 percent brighter than that of the earth. Therefore, it can provide a glimpse into the apocalyptic future of tearth.
