It has been announced by NASA that a planet having Earth-like conditions, has been discovered by the Kepler mission. The planet is officially named as Kepler-452b and has attracted many space enthusiasts around the world. This discovery has been made just after Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner made an announcement related to $100 million to search alien life.

According to researchers, Earth and Kepler-452b have a number of similarities. The exoplanet is approximately 1.5 times the size of Earth and has nearly twice the weight, and is also expected to be rocky. As per reports, it comes under the ‘habitable zone’ which according to scientists could be the area with the highest probability of possible alien life.

It has been reported that orbit of Kepler-452b is quite similar to Earth’s; it has an orbital period of 385 days as compared to 365 days of Earth. Kepler-452b is approximately 6 billion years old, i.e. it is somewhat older Earth. The star it is circling is very similar to that of ours.

As per reports, people are more interested on the likelihood of an ‘Earth 2.0' that may host ever growing population of Earth in the future. The idea seems to be quite exciting, however it is not considered that practical. Kepler-452b is approximately 1,400 light years away. Space probes that we are having today would be taking approximately 26 million years to reach it.

On the basis of this, it’s not likely that a technology will be available for sending humans in an attempt to explore this planet. But in case it is done, there would be discovery of more worlds similar to Earth, together with some that are nearer.