Scientists find Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star

Astronomers may have discovered an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star, a little over 3,000 light-years away. The unconfirmed exoplanet, the planet named ‘Planet KOI-456.04’, is thought to be similar to Earth for several reasons. It is said to have the same distance between its Sun – Kepler-160 – with an orbit that takes 378 days to complete. It also thought to receive 93 percent as much light as Earth gets from the Sun. That, when combined with the fact Kepler-160 is believed to be very similar to our own Sun in terms of mass and radius, leads scientists to think they may have found an Earth-like planet in the solar vicinity that has the potential to sustain life.

Most exoplanet discoveries thus far have been around red dwarf stars, which for several reasons would be improbable hosts to habitable planets, including the fact they can emit high-energy flares and radiation that would make it difficult for life to survive. According to a research paper published in Astronomy and Astrophysics journal last week, Planet KOI-456.04 appears to be the fourth planet orbiting the Kepler-160 star.

Planet KOI-456.04 discovered after examining old data collected by NASA’s exoplanet-finding Kepler mission with new algorithms to study the star’s (Kepler-160) brightness. A study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) and researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz as well as at NASA.