The most Earth-like planet shows up

With a radius of 1.5 times the globe, a planet orbiting a star like the sun is the most earth-like celestial object that people ever know.

More than a week after international astronomers announced they would find a twin version of the globe, the Kepler space telescope of the US Space Agency (NASA) discovered a bright candidate. price. KOI 172.02 - the name of this planet - is the most Earth-like celestial object ever seen by astronomers, Space reported.

The difference between KOI 172.02 and the globe is very small. Its radius is about 50% larger than the earth's radius and it revolves around a star that is quite similar to the sun. The distance between it and the star equals three-quarters of the distance from the earth to the sun - meaning life can exist on its surface. KOI 172.02 lasted 242 days, meaning it was closer to the star than Earth. Even so, it enjoys all the favorable conditions for life.

Illustration of a planet with the same characteristics as the Earth in the Milky Way. (Photo: gawker.com)

"This is the first time we have found a planet very similar to the earth and revolving around a sun-like star. In the past we only discovered planets around stars that are completely different from the sun " Natalia Batalha, an astronomer at NASA's Ames Research Center, commented.

Astrophysicist Mario Livio, a NASA scientist, confirmed that finding KOI 172.02 is an important achievement.

"It is certainly a promising candidate for those who hunt for life outside the earth , " Livio said.

Kepler's data analysis shows that the "twin version of the planet" is not a rock planet, but the ability of water to exist on it is huge.

"Perhaps we won't see animals living on land there, but we can see dolphins very smart," Livio joked.

Data from the Kepler telescope shows that more than 17 billion planets of the same size are "living" in the Milky Way.