Kepler-452b

exoplanet · habitable zone · space discovery

Super-Earth candidate. Kepler-452b is a planet much bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, orbiting a star that's similar to our Sun. Scientists discovered it using the Kepler space telescope, which hunts for distant planets by watching stars for shadows.

In the habitable zone. This planet orbits within the inner edge of its star's habitable zone, which is the region where temperatures might be just right for liquid water to exist on the surface. Liquid water is one of the things scientists think is important for life as we know it.

Far, far away. Kepler-452b is about 1,800 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, which means its light takes 1,800 years to reach us. That makes it too distant for us to visit anytime soon!

Still being studied. Scientists have debated whether Kepler-452b really exists because detecting distant planets is tricky. More recent work has supported the discovery, but astronomers continue to study this world to understand it better.