Astronomers Just Found One of the Strangest Worlds Ever

Kepler-452b, often called Earth’s “cousin,” is a fascinating exoplanet located 1,402 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. Discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope in 2015, it orbits a star very similar to our Sun and sits in the habitable zone—where liquid water could exist. About 60% larger than Earth, with potentially five times the mass, Kepler-452b has a year lasting roughly 385 days. While we don’t yet know if it has water, an atmosphere, or life, this distant world reminds us h