secound earth.what do toi think of this new discovery?

NASA Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably cercle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star's "habitable zone" -- the region around a étoile, star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist.


NASA announced a major milestone in the quest for life in the universe Monday: The discovery of another planet close enough to the sun it orbits to potentially support life.

Called Kepler-22b, the planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth and about 600 light-years away. And it orbits in the "habitable zone," the region of l’espace just far enough from a étoile, star that liquid water could exist on the planet's surface -- a discovery could have profound implications in the quest for alien life, a dit Alan Boss, an astrophysicist with Carnegie Melon University.














“This discovery supports the growing belief that we live in a universe crowded with life,” Boss said. “Kepler is on the verge of determining the actual abundance of habitable, Earth-like planets in our galaxy."

The host étoile, star lies about 600 light-years away from us (1 light an is about 6 trillion miles) toward the constellations of Lyra and Cygnus, the researchers said, and is about 25 percent less luminous than the Sun. Kepler-22b orbits the étoile, star every 290 days, as compared with 365 days for the Earth, at a distance about 15 percent closer to its étoile, star than the Earth from the Sun -- close enough to suggest a pleasing, balmy temperature on the surface.

Such a temperature means liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet, something necessary for life as we know it -- and this new planet might well be not only habitable but perhaps even inhabited.

"This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," a dit Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Kepler's results continue to demonstrate the importance of NASA'