Kepler 452b: Future shock?

Kepler 452b    (NASA artist's conception)

Investigating Kepler 452b could be a bit like scanning the final chapters of our human saga.

According to the AFP, recently-discovered Kepler 452b circles “its star at the same distance as the Earth orbits the Sun.” However, its closest star happens to be 1.5 billion years older than ours.

If we wish to know what could happen to Earth in the distant future, we might as well closely study Kepler 452b.  As stars enter their latter phases of existence, they throw off more and more of their heat. 

Planetary recipients of this extreme heat can therefore stand to lose all of their surface water through evaporation.  Good-bye water, good-bye water vapor, good-bye us.  It could end up to be that directly proportional.

But not to worry...  We still have a billion years or so to beat these odds.

  

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-discovers-earth-like-planet-orbiting-cousin-of-sun/ar-AAdnQPj

Copyright July 24, 2015 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved