NASA Confirms Possibly Habitable Planet Similar To Earth

NASA revealed yesterday that its Kepler Mission has confirmed the existence of a habitable planet. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth and it orbits its star at a distance that would allow liquid water. The planet is named Kepler-22b.

The goal of the Kepler Mission is to discover planets outside our solar system and it does so by monitoring stars and dips in the brightness which elude to planetary 'transits' in front of the stars. Kepler must record three dips to confirm the planet exists.

NASA stated

Of the 54 habitable zone planet candidates reported in February 2011, Kepler-22b is the first to be confirmed. This milestone will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Will we move 600 light years to live on this planet in the future? Time can only tell.

[via NASA.gov]