Kepler-22b – A New Planet With Earth-Like Characteristics Discovered By NASA

New Earth-Like planet discovered by NASA Kepler telescope

This Monday NASA announced the discovery of a new Earth-like planet that has been named Kepler-22b. Kepler-22b is the first planet the Kepler spacecraft telescope has discovered in the habitable zone, which means in an area with a such distance from a star where planet temperatures will permit the existence of liquid water.

Kepler-22b is eerily similar to Earth and although it is situated outside our solar system it seems to be the place where life could exist. The new planet is bigger than Earth and it’s the first exo-planet that is confirmed to be orbiting in the middle of the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. The new planet that might be Earth’s twin is located in about 600-light-years away from Earth. Kepler-22b’S temperature is approximately 72 degrees on Fahrenheit scale and its radius is 2.4 times of Earth.

UPDATE: Kepler spacecraft telescope detected two more two Earth-sized planet

Today, December 20th, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced that its scientists have found another two Earth-sized planets that are orbiting a star outside our solar system. New planets are called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f , and have also been discovered by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft telescope.