Why 'Earth 2.0' is actually nothing like Earth

Nasa's discovery of Kepler-452b, a planet orbiting around a distant star in deep space, has predictably caused waves of excitement on the internet, with headlines perhaps over-eagerly heralding the existence of a 'second Earth'.

But beyond the lively tweets about the possibility of having extraterrestrial neighbours, or a brand new planet to set our sights on colonising, the truth is much more mundane. Look a bit closer, in fact, and it seems 'Earth 2.0' is actually nothing like our own planet -- with some experts
even claiming that fireball Venus has more in common with us. Here are just a few of the key differences between Earth and 'Earth 2.0': Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger than Earth
The planet's star is around 1.5 billion years older than the Sun  It orbits its star once every 385 days
 It has twice the gravitational pull of Earth. On the surface, it may sound like the discovery of Kepler-452b is something of a revelation, but new planets are being found all the time. Since Nasa launched the Kepler telescope in 2009, it's identified a total of 4,175 exoplanets -- or planets orbiting their own stars -- with 500 of those newly found.