Rhea Acholkar

Journey to Kepler 452b

Started Apr. 5, 2022

Abstract or project description

As Earth begins to experience climate change, it inevitably will become inhabitable for human life. This evokes the dilemma of whether we should seek another habitable planet where the human race can begin life again. We eliminated the possibility of us inhabiting any other planet in our solar system since Earth is the only planet in our solar system within the habitable zone. This means it is the only planet that can harbor liquid water. This means that we would have to find a potentially habitable planet that is located outside our solar system which is what we would call an exoplanet. In order to achieve this, we studied previous research papers done by NASA and other astronomers and we found that the most Earth-like planet was discovered in the Cygnus constellation and is referred to as Kepler 452b. According to our findings, this planet was determined to be the most habitable for human life because of its rocky terrain and larger mass, its location in the habitable zone of the solar system, and the similarities between our host star and KIC 8311864. After researching and confirming Kepler 452b’s habitability, we are left with figuring out how the journey to Kepler 452b would work seeing as it is located 1,400 light years away from Earth. We will be using a simulation to demonstrate the journey of  how a spaceship can be launched at higher speeds using methods like the Hohman transfer to reach the Cygnus constellation in a shorter amount of time. Our results will be a demonstration of how humanity can begin life on another planet outside our solar system and how we could possibly travel outside our solar system under the likely circumstance that Earth will one day become inhabitable.