Erstellt am: 24. 7. 2015 - 13:36 Uhr

A turning point, but not a game-changer

Reality Check: Turkey's new tactics on Islamic State; is Kepler 452b really "Earth 2.0"?

Turkey, IS & the Kurds

EPA/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

A file picture dated 2003 showing a US military plane landing at Incirlik airbase, near the southern Turkish city of Adana.

There’s been a series of developments in Turkey in the wake of Monday’s bomb attack in the town of Suruc: Turkish warplanes have bombed Islamic State targets in Syria, Ankara has given the US permission to use its Incirlik airbase for launching airstrikes against IS, and Turkish police have carried out raids targeting Islamic State as well as Kurdish militants. Why is Turkey taking these steps now? We get some perspective from international security analyst Shashank Joshi:

Earth 2.0 ?

Nasa scientists are very excited about the discovery of Kepler 452b. It’s an earth-like planet in our galaxy. So earth-like that they’re calling it “Earth 2.0”.

EPA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/T

A handout released by NASA shows an artists concept which compares Earth (L) and the exoplanet Kepler-452b (R).

It’s similar in size, in terms of the estimated conditions on its surface, and in the length of its years (385 days). AND … it has spent billions of years at a perfect distance from its star, ie not too hot and not too cold to host life. But astronomer and blogger Florian Freistetter says calling it a “second earth” is going too far:

Dr Matt Burleigh from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Leicester University explains what’s interesting about this discovery:

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