The Kepler Space Telescope has discovered the first Earth-Like Planet in the ‘Habitable Zone’ of another solar system

Using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" – the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.

While planets have previously been found in the habitable zone, they are all at least 40 percent larger in size than Earth and understanding their makeup is challenging. Kepler-186f is more reminiscent of Earth.

"The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth," said Paul Hertz, NASA’s Astrophysics Division director at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. "Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind’s quest to find truly Earth-like worlds."

• NASA’s Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The ‘Habitable Zone’ of Another Star (NASA.gov)
• NASA’s Kepler Telescope Discovers First Earth-Size Planet in ‘Habitable Zone’ (NASA JPL)
• Meet Kepler-186f, the most ‘Earth-like’ planet ever found (Los Angeles Times)
• Found! First Earth-Size Planet That Could Support Life (Space.com)