Kepler-62f is a planet, which is situated in the direction of the constellation Lyra and is approximately 40 percent larger than Earth and may have life on it.Researchers from University of California-Los Angele,s informs that this planet is about 1,200 light-years away from Earth and most probably has surface liquid water. The availability of water is a very good prospect for living beings to survive in that planet. They have named this planet Kepler-62f.
A lead author and an astrophysics postdoctoral person, Aomawa Shields said that at that size, Kepler-62f is within the range of planets that are likely to be rocky and possibly could have oceans. The discovery of the planetary system including Kepler-62f was made by NASA’s Kepler mission, in 2013. They identified Kepler-62f as the outermost of five planets orbiting a star that is smaller and cooler than the Sun. However the mission failed to reveal any information about its composition or atmosphere or the shape of its orbit.
The team tried to come up with possible scenarios regarding what the planet’s atmosphere might be like and what the shape of its orbit might be, in order to decide whether the planet could sustain life. Shields also said, we found there are multiple atmospheric compositions that allow it to be warm enough to have surface liquid water. This makes it a strong candidate for a habitable planet. Earth’s atmosphere is made up of 0.04 percent of carbondioxide. Compared to the distance between earth and the sun, the planet Kepler-62f is much farther away from its star, therefore it would require more percentage of carbondioxide to be warm enough to have water in the liquid state and prevent it from freezing.