Kepler-452b, a planet about one-and-a-half times the size of the Earth, is located in the correct position to possess conditions for life to be created, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology found.

“We determined that Kepler-452b is the most likely exoplanet that we know of on which life may have originated because of its star, Kepler-452, and because of its distance from the star,” the study’s lead author, Paul Rimmer, told Euronews.

Kepler-452 is the same type of star as our own sun, and likely produces enough UV light to kickstart a series of chemical reactions that produce the building blocks of life, while the planet is also the correct distance from the star for liquid water to exist stably on its surface, he explained.

Its position within both the “abiogenesis zone” and the “habitable region” are so similar to Earth's that the exoplanet has been dubbed "Earth's cousin".

However, despite their similarities, much remains unknown about the planet, which was discovered in 2015.

“Kepler-452b is bigger than the Earth... This may just mean it's a bigger rock, and otherwise would be much like the Earth. Or it may be a world covered with water. Or maybe it's shrouded in a hydrogen envelope, more like a warm Neptune than Earth,” said Rimmer.

“In these respects it could be a little different or almost completely different from Earth. We don't know.”

Rimmer noted that while Kepler-452b is the most likely exoplanet that we know of on which life may have originated, there may be other closer planets on which the “building blocks of life may have more easily formed” but that haven’t been found yet.

The scientists are now building a simulator to accurately reproduce the light of different stars.

“We plan to test the chemistry with this simulator, to see what sorts of flaring is needed to make life's building blocks,” Rimmer said. </s> Kepler 452b is said to sit in the middle of the abiogenesis zone

A planet one-and-a-half times the size of Earth has emerged as the most likely planet outside our solar system to support alien life.

Kepler 452b, which is 1,400 light years away, is in the middle of a zone which scientists say possesses the right conditions for life to be created.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology found it is in the centre of the so-called abiogenesis zone.

This is a region of a solar system where the level of ultraviolet light is right to kickstart the chemical reactions that can lead to early life.

But it is also in a habitable region, a ring of space that is a sufficient distance from a planet's host star so that it is not too hot or too cold to support life - the so-called Goldilocks zone.

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In fact, the planet's positions within the zones are so similar to Earth's that it has been dubbed "Earth's cousin".

Kepler 452b has also been described as a "super-Earth" because its mass is higher than Earth's but much less than the larger planets of the solar system, like Jupiter and Saturn, which are called gas giants.

The star which it orbits, Kepler 452, in the constellation of Cygnus, is about 20% brighter than the sun and some two billion years older.

Kepler 452b is one of numerous planets discovered by the Kepler telescope, an orbiting observatory that was launched by NASA in 2009 to find exoplanets - planets outside out own solar system.

Image: The planet was found by NASA's Kepler telescope

Nearly 4,000 planets have now been discovered orbiting stars other than the sun.

Of these, only about 50 are known to occupy their star's habitable zone but not all are thought to receive the right amount and type of UV to kickstart the origins of life.

It has been estimated there are as many as 700 million trillion terrestrial planets in the observable universe.

The scientists who carried out the research, which is published in the journal Science Advances, say that although Kepler 452b is too far away to probe with current technology, the next-generation telescopes, such as NASA's TESS and James Webb Telescopes, should be able to identify many more planets within an abiogenesis zone.

But they say that if there is life on Kepler 452b and other planets the telescopes may find, it may be of a completely different type to that on earth.

Dr Paul Rimmer, a postdoctoral researcher with affiliation to Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory and the first author of the paper in which the findings were revealed, said: "It makes sense to look for places that are most like us.

"There's an important distinction between what is necessary and what is sufficient.

"The building blocks are necessary, but they may not be sufficient: it's possible you could mix them for billions of years and nothing happens. But you want to at least look at the places where the necessary things exist." </s> A "super-Earth" 1400 light years away has emerged as the exoplanet most likely of any known to support alien life.

Kepler 452b, discovered in 2015, lies in the middle of a newly identified "abiogenesis zone" where the right conditions exist for life to be spawned by starlight and chemistry.

The planet, which has a radius 1.5 times that of Earth, also orbits inside the "habitable" or "Goldilocks" zone with temperatures not too hot and not too cold to permit liquid surface water.

Almost 4000 planets have now been discovered orbiting stars other than the sun. Of these, only about 50 are known to occupy their star's habitable zone.

However, just one - Kepler 452b - also falls inside the abiogenesis zone.

A planet in the abiogenesis zone is bathed in the right level and type of ultraviolet radiation from its star to kick-start chemical reactions thought to have given birth to life on Earth.

Scientists at Cambridge University coined the term after conducting a series of laboratory experiments mimicking the creation of life's building blocks.

A leading theory for the way life began on Earth is that it emerged from chemical reactions involving hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulphite, powered by sunlight.

Duplicating earlier work conducted in 2015, the Cambridge researchers created the precursors of lipids, amino acids and nucleotides - all essential components of living cells.

They then went a step further by comparing the UV light used in the laboratory to that generated by different stars.

Generally the most sun-like stars were found to emit the right sort of light to trigger the formation of life's building blocks on planets.

Kepler 452, in the constellation of Cygnus, is about 20 per cent brighter than the sun and some two billion years older.

The planet 452b has been called "Earth's cousin". Computer simulations suggest it has a thick atmosphere, liquid surface water, and active volcanoes.

Lead scientist Dr Paul Rimmer, from Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory, said: "This work allows us to narrow down the best places to search for life.

"It brings us just a little bit closer to addressing the question of whether we are alone in the universe."

Most known habitable zone planets orbit close to cool red dwarf stars. Occasional violent flares from the stars could provide the radiation needed to spark the birth of life, but may also destroy genetic material, said the scientists.

The new research is published in the journal Science Advances.

According to recent estimates, there could be as many as 700 million trillion Earth-like planets in the observable universe. </s> As part of the K2 mission – the NASA Kepler telescope’s new lease on life

The number of exoplanets has risen by almost 100, as an international team of astronomers confirms a new batch found in data captured as part of the K2 mission – the NASA Kepler telescope’s new lease on life.

They have been analysing the first batch of K2 data, and have just announced the discovery of another 95 planets – bringing the total number of exoplanets discovered by K2 to nearly 300.

“We started out analysing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets. In turn 95 of these planets have proved to be new discoveries,” said PhD student Andrew Mayo from the Technical University of Denmark, and lead author on the project.

The Kepler mission was launched in 2009. Since then, it has trailed Earth’s orbit around the Sun, searching for exoplanets using the transit method – photographing stars over time, and looking for changes in the brightness.

If a star dims, then brightens again on a regular basis, that more than likely means it’s being orbited by a body large enough to block at least some of its light.

The method requires a lot of painstaking work poring over data to find the periods of dimness, and then confirm them. It also only works if the planet orbits between the observer (us, or rather the Kepler telescope) and its star.

Nevertheless, it’s very effective. The Kepler main mission found 2,341 confirmed exoplanets, according to NASA.

But then disaster struck in 2013, when the second of the telescope’s four reaction wheels failed. The mission was revived as K2 when NASA figured out a way to use Kepler’s thrusters as a makeshift reaction wheel, therefore retaining the ability to reorient the telescope to look at different parts of the sky.

Thankfully, it’s still at work to this day.

The data used for Mayo’s team’s analysis was collected in 2014. They had to comb the data thoroughly to make sure the stars’ dimming was not caused by other factors.

“We found that some of the signals were caused by multiple star systems or noise from the spacecraft. But we also detected planets that range from sub-Earth-sized to the size of Jupiter and larger,” Mayo said.

“We validated a planet on a 10 day orbit around a star called HD 212657 [about 254 light-years away], which is now the brightest star found by either the Kepler or K2 missions to host a validated planet.”

The brighter the host star, the more we can determine about the planet that orbits it – perhaps even more so when the next generation of much higher resolution space telescopes is launched.

Astronomers may be able to even glean information about its atmosphere, as they have done for TRAPPIST-1 planets.

Between them, the Kepler and K2 missions have been used to find over 5,100 candidate exoplanets to date.

This is partially about the search for extraterrestrial life, but also because statistical data about the universe around us – such as how many planets there are, the average number of planets per system, and the number of rocky and gaseous planets – can tell us more about how typical (or not) our own Solar System is, and how it fits into our Universe. </s> An international team of scientists have confirmed the discovery of almost 100 new planets beyond our solar system which are orbiting nearby stars. They were found using data captured by Nasa's Kepler space observatory as part of its K2 mission.

Researchers have been examining data from the mission - which has so far identified nearly 300 new exoplanets - since 2014. But the latest batch - described in a paper published in the Astronomical Journal - is the most impressive of the K2 mission so far.

"This is more than twice as large as any other single haul of exoplanets found as part of the K2 mission," Andrew Mayo from the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, told IBTimes UK. "The previous largest batch added 45 new exoplanets to the K2 sample."

Astronomers can identify exoplanets using Kepler because it is able to register dips in light when objects pass in front of their host star. However, researchers must examine these dimming events closely to confirm that they are being caused by transiting exoplanets.

During the latest research, the team found that some of the signals coming from the 275 candidate exoplanets they were investigating were actually being caused by multiple star systems or noise from the spacecraft. However, they were eventually able to confirm the discovery of 95 new exoplanets, ranging in size from smaller than Earth to bigger than Jupiter, and even larger.

The scientists from institutions including Nasa, Caltech, the University of California Berkeley, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Tokyo, were able to determine the radius of each planet, its distance from its host star and its orbital period, as well as other parameters.

The original Kepler mission began in 2009 when the space observatory was launched into orbit around the Earth to hunt for new exoplanets in a particular patch of the sky. But in 2013, a mechanical failure crippled the telescope. Fortunately, astronomers and engineers managed to save it by reconfiguring the observatory so that it changed its field of view periodically. This marked the start of the K2 mission.

"The most interesting thing about this new release of planets is that they orbit stars that are quite bright relative to the original Kepler mission, so many will be excellent targets for follow-up observations such as mass measurements and atmospheric characterisation," Mayo said. "In comparison very few targets from the original Kepler mission were suitable for those types of analyses".

Finding planets around bright stars is good news for astronomers because they can learn a lot about them using ground-based observatories. One world of particular interest among the latest batch was found to orbit the brightest star to host a planet ever found using Kepler.

The search for new exoplanets is currently one of the most exciting areas of space science, one that is providing fascinating insights into our universe. We now know that planets around other stars are the rule rather than the exception and that there are likely billions in the Milky Way alone.

The field is relatively young – the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992 – but it is rapidly maturing. To date, more than 3,700 exoplanets have been confirmed, with more than 2,500 of those identified by the two Kepler missions.

"The original Kepler mission was our first glimpse into the incredible abundance and diversity of exoplanets in the Galaxy," Mayo said. "It taught us volumes about the types of exoplanets and exoplanet systems that can exist in nature and gave us an idea of what the general exoplanet population looks like."

"The follow up K2 mission, on the other hand, has provided us with a great deal of interesting individual planets and systems that we can now start to study in greater detail. While Kepler gave us a broad overview of exoplanets, K2 is helping us dive much deeper," he added.

Using the new data, scientists can start looking closer at the density, composition and even atmospheres of the exoplanets.

And with upcoming missions, such as the powerful James Webb Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, astronomers will be able to make unprecedented observations of these planets and identify which may be capable of supporting life, among other goals. </s> Spotting new exoplanets with NASA’s Kepler space telescope is nothing new. Google even managed to automate the process with machine learning. Just add them to the pile with the 3,700 other exoplanets, right? Sometimes researchers still spot a planet of particular interest in the data that deserves additional study. Such is the case with one of 15 planets just uncovered by Japanese astronomers. It’s Earth-like and potentially habitable.

Kepler has been in operation for nearly a decade, scanning large numbers of stars in order to spot small dips in brightness. That dip could signify a planet is orbiting the star and passed in front of it from Kepler’s perspective. However, someone needs to go through the data to determine if the signal really does give away the presence of a planet.

Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology spotted the latest exoplanets hiding in the data when examining readings collected by Kepler in the K2 phase. K2 started several years ago when reaction wheel problems limited the effectiveness of the satellite’s camera. Even in this limited mode, Kepler has found hundreds of new exoplanets to add to the total of more than 2,500 discovered since it started operating. Three of the 15 newly discovered planets fall into the Super-Earth category, meaning they’re rocky and between 1.5 and two times larger than Earth.

Of the three Super-Earths, one known as K2-155d is a tantalizing target for future study. It orbits a red dwarf star about 200 light years away, which is called K2-155. Red dwarfs are very long-lived stars, so life would have plenty of time to develop. They’re smaller and cooler than the sun, but an exoplanet orbiting close enough could still be warm enough to have liquid water on its surface. The flip side is that radiation would be more intense at that distance.

K2-155d is about 1.6 times the size of Earth, but we can’t say anything for sure about its density. Therefore, it may have more gravity than Earth or it could be very similar because of a lower density. Based on simulations of the exoplanet, the team believes it could have an atmosphere similar to Earth’s. Additional observations will help nail down the exoplanet’s properties and determine if it would be habitable by our standards.

NASA is set to launch the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) next month. This spacecraft will look at the brightest stars near Earth over a two-year period to gather data about exoplanets. As the brightest red dwarf visible from Earth, K2-155 could be on the list. </s> Scientists have discovered nearly 100 new 'exoplanets' in the search for Earth-like planets that could support life.

It's a major breakthrough that reveals new planets that range in size from smaller than Earth to celestial bodies even bigger than Jupiter.

The findings were made by a team of international colleagues from the University of Denmark, NASA, the University of Tokyo and others.

Researchers studied information from the K2 Kepler telescope mission, which aims to track down new exoplanets across the universe.

Exoplanets are planets found outside of our solar system, the Milky Way, that orbit a star – just like how Earth orbits the Sun.

To find these, scientists use a space telescope to track dips in light caused by the shadow of an exoplanet crossing in front of its host star.

Lead author Andrew Mayo, who works at the National Space Insititute, has presented the findings in the Astronomical Journal, and revealed that he had been working on the project since the first K2 data release back in 2014.

"We started out analysing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets.

"In turn 95 of these planets have been proved to be new discoveries."

The original Kepler spacecraft launched back in 2009, questing for exoplanets in a small patch of sky.

But a mechanical failure crippled the telescope in 2013, paving the way for a follow-up K2 mission that's proving much more successful.

It allowed researchers to uncover a new field of exoplanets, raising hopes for the prospect of life beyond earth.

The goal is to eventually track down exoplanets that are rocky, habitable, Earth-sized planets that could be capable of supporting life.

"Exoplanets are a very exciting field of space science. As more planets are discovered, astronomers will develop a much better picture of the nature of exoplanets, which in turn will allow us to place our own solar system into a galactic context."

Mayo says they "detected planets that range from sub Earth-sized to the size of Jupiter and larger".

This story originally appeared in The Sun. </s> • NASA's Kepler space telescope, which first launched in 2009 with the goal of finding new exoplanets, is running out of fuel 94 million miles from Earth's orbit.
• The NASA spacecraft has discovered thousands of worlds around other stars in our galaxy, with some of those worlds within a habitable range, where they might have liquid water.
• But though Kepler has lasted longer than some thought it would, every mission comes to an end, and Kepler will soon be pointed back home.

NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered at least 2,342 exoplanets (worlds orbiting other stars) along with another 2,245 potential other worlds. At least 30 of those planets are less than twice Earth's size and in what we think could be the habitable zone around their stars.

Yet Kepler's search for other worlds is coming to an end, 94 million miles from home.

"With nary a gas station to be found in deep space, the spacecraft is going to run out of fuel," Charlie Sobeck, system engineer for the Kepler space telescope mission, wrote in a news release for NASA. "We expect to reach that moment within several months."

Kepler was first launched in 2009 with a mission to survey our part of the Milky Way galaxy, searching for Earth-size and smaller planets that might potentially be in a habitable zone so we can see just how common these sorts of planets are.

The spacecraft itself is a telescope that observes faraway stars to look for dips in brightness, which indicate a planet has passed in front of the star. The observations can be used to calculate how large the planet is and how far from a star it is — which reveals whether or not there could be liquid water, making a world habitable.

In 2013, a broken component put an end to Kepler's primary mission. Yet researchers were able to devise another way to observe distant worlds. The same spacecraft was reborn as "K2," and in that form has discovered at least 307 confirmed exoplanets and another 479 candidates.

At the time, NASA researchers thought they'd be able to conduct 10 observation campaigns before running out of gas. Kepler surprised them and is currently in its 17th campaign.

They can't tell exactly when the craft will run out of fuel, but the end is near. NASA plans on using a last bit of energy to point Kepler back towards Earth to ensure it can gather as much data as possible.

As this mission comes to an end, a replacement will come online. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 16.

"TESS will search nearly the entire sky for planets outside our solar system, focusing on the brightest stars less than 300 light-years away, and adding to Kepler’s treasure trove of planet discoveries," wrote Sobeck. </s> Nearly 100 new planets orbiting stars outside our solar system have been found by Nasa's Kepler telescope.

Researchers confirmed the presence of the 95 worlds after studying 275 possible candidates from data provided by the probe.

Kepler, which is currently on the K2 mission to discover exoplanets, has found thousands of candidates since it was launched almost a decade ago.

The latest discovery raises hopes that astronomers may soon find a system similar to our own that hosts alien life.

The study was done by an international team led by Andrew Mayo from the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark.

'By increasing the number of planets discovered with K2 by almost 50 percent, this work will help astronomers dive much deeper into analysing and learning about individual planets, particularly smaller exoplanets,' Dr Mayo told Gizmodo.

The Kepler spacecraft was launched in 2009 to hunt for exoplanets in a single patch of sky, but in 2013 a mechanical failure crippled the telescope.

However, astronomers and engineers devised a way to repurpose and save the space telescope by changing its field of view periodically. This solution paved the way for the follow up K2 mission, which is still ongoing as the spacecraft searches for exoplanet transits.

These transits can be found by registering dips in light caused by the shadow of an exoplanet as it crosses in front of its host star.

These dips are indications of exoplanets which must then be examined much closer in order to validate the candidates that are actually exoplanets.

The field of exoplanets is relatively young.

The first planet orbiting a star similar to our own sun was detected only in 1995.

Today some 3,600 exoplanets have been found, ranging from rocky Earth-sized planets to large gas giants like Jupiter.

It's difficult work to distinguish which signals are actually coming from exoplanets.

Dr Mayo and his colleagues analysed hundreds of signals of potential exoplanets thoroughly to determine which signals were created by exoplanets and which were caused by other sources.

'We found that some of the signals were caused by multiple star systems or noise from the spacecraft. But we also detected planets that range from sub Earth-sized to the size of Jupiter and larger,' said Dr Mayo.

One of the planets detected was orbiting a very bright star.

'We validated a planet on a 10 day orbit around a star called HD 212657, which is now the brightest star found by either the Kepler or K2 missions to host a validated planet.

'Planets around bright stars are important because astronomers can learn a lot about them from ground-based observatories,' said Dr Mayo.

'Exoplanets are a very exciting field of space science. As more planets are discovered, astronomers will develop a much better picture of the nature of exoplanets which in turn will allow us to place our own solar system into a galactic context'.

The latest study follows news in December that the Kepler probe had found an eighth planet in a distant star system called Kepler 90.

This was the first time a faraway star had been found to have the same number of planets orbiting it as our own sun.

According to NASA, it confirmed for the first time that distant star systems can be home to 'families as large as our own.'

The new planet, estimated to be about 30 percent larger than Earth, is 'not a place you'd like to visit,' said Andrew Vanderburg, astronomer and NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas, Austin.

'It is probably rocky, and doesn't have a thick atmosphere'. And, temperatures at the surface are 'scorching.'

According to Vanderburg, the average surface temperature is likely around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Kepler planet hunting satellite has been searching the stars for distant worlds using Google's AI system, which used machine learning to 'find' planets in the Kepler data with up to 96 percent accuracy.

Neural networks can be trained on huge amounts of data to determine the difference between objects with great accuracy, the team explained in the teleconference.

Much like an AI can learn to spot the difference between cats and dogs, it can spot the difference between patterns associated with planets, and other types of patterns in the cosmos that could be false positives.

The star system sits roughly 2,545 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco, and of the new planets found, Kepler 90i is the 'smallest of the bunch.'

The new planet orbits its star once every 14.4 days.

But, all of the planets in this system 'tightly' orbit their star, which is thought to be cooler than our own sun, meaning their orbital periods are relatively short.

Before the latest AI-guided results, 'Kepler 90 was tied with Trappist-1, with 7 planets each,' says Jessie Dotson, Kepler project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley.

'But now, it ties with our own system with the most known number of planets' around a star.
Kepler-452b emerges as an exoplanet that might support alien life.