by yaska77
Astronomers have identified an Earth-like planet in the “habitable zone” around a star similar to our own Sun. Called Kepler 22b it lies 600 light-years away and is 2.4 times the size of Earth (with a temperature of around 22C).
Comparison showing the Kepler-22 system and the Solar system (and the relative size of their planets) - (click to enlarge) - Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
Kepler 22-b was one of 54 exoplanet candidates located in “goldilock zones” (the area far enough from its star to not be too hot, but close enough in to not be too cold, therefore “just right”) and is just the first to be formally confirmed with other telescopes.
While this discovery is the closest planet so far confirmed to experience temperatures like ours, the group behind the revelation doesn’t know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.
The squares show Kepler's field of view (the area of the sky it has studied) in which you can find the location of Kepler 22b, close to the constellations Cygnus and Lyra - Credit: NASA
The Kepler team also announced that it had spotted 1,094 new candidate planets – doubling the telescope’s original group of possible Earth’s. The total number of candidate planets spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 – of which 207 are about the same size as the Earth.
