About the image. Drawn as a temperate rocky world with oceans and clouds. The radius is measured; the surface, colour and water are imagined. Nobody knows whether Kepler-452b has oceans, an atmosphere or a solid surface at all.
1.1×as wide as our Sun, almost exactly
≈ 1×about as much light as Earth gets
The sky from Kepler-452b
Kepler-452 would look 1.1× as wide as the Sun does from Earth, almost exactly like our Sun, and the planet gets about as much light as Earth gets from the Sun.
Its colour comes from its surface temperature of 5 757 K (5 480 °C); the Sun's is about 5 772 K (5 500 °C).
How fast Kepler-452b spins is unknown, so the length of its day is too.
Apparent size = star radius ÷ orbit; light = size² × (temperature ÷ 5 772 K)⁴. Both from the values on this page. The landscape is imagined.
In July 2015 NASA presented Kepler-452b as Earth’s “bigger, older cousin”. It is the kind of planet the Kepler mission was built to find: a world not much larger than Earth, circling a star almost identical to the Sun, at almost the same distance.
The star, Kepler-452, is a G-type star about 3.7% more massive than the Sun and roughly 1.5 billion years older. The planet takes 385 days to go around it. It receives about 10% more energy than Earth gets from the Sun, which puts it near the inner edge of the habitable zone. That is close enough that, if it has an atmosphere, it could be heading for a runaway greenhouse like the one that turned Venus into an oven.
Is it really there?
Kepler-452b was found from a handful of tiny dips in its star’s light. In 2018 a re-analysis of the Kepler data (Mullally and colleagues) argued that the signal was not strong enough to call it a confirmed planet, and that it should still be treated as a candidate. They did not show it was a false alarm. A 2025 statistical study (Robnik and Seljak) put the chance of a false positive below 1%, which strengthens the case again.
What we actually know
Only the size is measured directly: about 1.6 times the width of Earth. The mass in the table is a calculation from that size, not a measurement. A planet this large could be a rocky super-Earth, or it could hold a thick envelope of gas. At 1 800 light-years, no telescope today can tell which.
Its orbit, to scale
Kepler-452b goes around once every 385 days, at 1.046 AU from its star. Dashed circles show Mercury, Venus, Earth around the Sun, on the same scale.
Kepler-452b: equilibrium temperature. Logarithmic scale from 100 K to 10 000 K. Reference values: NASA, IAU.
How long to get there?
Kepler-452b is about 1 800 light-years away.
Light299 792 km/s1 800 years
Breakthrough Starshotplanned light sail, 20% of light speed9 000 years
Parker Solar Probefastest spacecraft so far, 192 km/s2.8 million years
Voyager 1leaving the Solar System, 17 km/s31.7 million years
At Voyager 1's speed the trip would take about 396 784 human lifetimes of 80 years. Bars are on a logarithmic scale. Speeds: NASA, Breakthrough Initiatives.
Gallery
Artist's impressions rendered from the same model as the view at the top of this page.
Timeline
2015NASA announces Kepler-452b as Earth's "bigger, older cousin".
2018A reanalysis of the Kepler data argues it should still be treated as a candidate.
2025A statistical study puts the chance of a false positive below 1%.
Questions people ask
Could humans live on Kepler-452b?
Nobody knows. It orbits near the inner edge of its star's habitable zone and receives about 10% more energy than Earth, so if it has an atmosphere it could be heating up like Venus. Its surface, air and water are all unknown.
How far away is Kepler-452b?
About 1 800 light-years. Light leaving it today would reach Earth around the year 3800.
Is Kepler-452b bigger than Earth?
Yes, about 1.6 times wider. Its mass has not been measured; the figure usually quoted is calculated from its size.