1,400 light-years away from our own planet, a planet that is in the habitable zone in its own solar system has been discovered. NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-452b on July 23rd, 2015 and stated it as Earth’s “older, bigger cousin.” It is 60% larger than Earth and the planet takes 385 Earth days to orbit its sun, so it most likely gets just as much sun as Earth does. However the gravity is twice of Earth’s, so if it were possible to get there, we would all feel really heavy. We would adapt though, Darwin’s theory of evolution and things like that.
Needless to say, there is no possible way for us to get there now, nor will there be in our lifetime. If the New Horizons Spacecraft, which just flew past Pluto after nine and a half years (woo Pluto HYPE), was going at the speed of 59,000 kilometers/hour, it would take 26 million years to get there. So we don’t have the technology to get there, nor will we in the near (or distant) future. Well, boo.
So, why is this actually important? This may be some useless information that you and people around you don’t really care about, but it gives our children and their children a standard to go forward in the field of science. As I stated above, we don’t have the technology to get there, nor is it even comprehendible at this point. But it gives a goal to future generations. Cool, we’ve found this planet that we may be able to live on if something were to happen to Earth. Now how do we get there? This can’t be done by us. No matter how smart we think we are, it’s just ahead of our time. It sucks, I know. As a die-hard Star Wars Fan, knowing that jumping into Hyperspace would tear me into oblivion is heartbreaking.
Why else is this important to us? Well, just like Bill Nye said on the exploration to Pluto, “We don’t actually know what we are going to find.” But that’s why we need to find it. What may be found on Kepler-452b or on Pluto may answer questions about where life, water, the air, all of the natural elements come from. We’ve explored Earth and our solar system, and now we need to expand our thoughts and intellect to broader horizons. Literally. With these advancements in science, getting to Mars seems like a piece of cake. Now that’s doable in our lifetime.
