Astronomers discover a ‘mirror image’ of the Earth and the Sun

Team Udayavani, Jun 7, 2020, 9:19 AM IST

Astronomers believe they have discovered an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star, about 3,000 light-years away

The object was discovered by a team led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen.

The ‘KOI-456.04’, which is less than twice the Earth’s size, orbits ‘Kepler-160’ at a distance similar to that between Earth and Sun and within the habitable zone. The amount and type of light that ‘KOI-456.04’ receives from its star is similar to what Earth gets.

In their research article, the team of scientists from MPS, the Sonneberg Observatory, the University of Göttingen, the University of California in Santa Cruz, and from NASA reports the discovery of a planet candidate less than twice the size of the Earth and with moderate illumination from a Sun-like star.

Kepler-160 has been known for about six years to be a host star of two exoplanets, called Kepler-160b and Kepler-160c. Both of these planets are substantially bigger than Earth and in relatively close orbits around their star.