The Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone – or zone where liquid water can exist – around a sunlike star.
Dreamers and visionaries have long imagined finding another Earth. This week (July 23, 2015) at a NASA teleconference, scientists with the planet-finding Kepler mission took a step closer to that dream with the discovery of the first nearly Earth-sized planet orbiting in the habitable zone or zone where liquid water can exist of its sunlike star. The planet is located 1,400 light-years away, in direction our constellation Cygnus the Swan. It has many similarities and also some differences to the world on which we stand. The Astronomical Journal has accepted the research paper reporting this finding. NASA also said:
This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another Earth.
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