2nd LD: NASA's planet-hunting Kepler Telescope spots Earth's close cousin

Scientists using planet- hunting Kepler space telescope have discovered a new catalog of exoplanet candidates and confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the "habitable zone" around a sun-like star, NASA announced during a press conference Thursday.

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date to have been discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

The new catalog includes 12 candidates that are less than twice Earth's diameter, orbiting in the so-called habitable zone of their star. This zone is the range of distances at which the energy flux from the star would permit liquid water to exist on the planet's surface.

Kepler 452b is the first to be confirmed as a planet of these candidates. At a distance of 1,400 light years, Kepler 452b accompanies a star whose characteristics are very similar to the Sun: it is 4 percent more massive and 10 percent brighter. Kepler 452b orbits its star at the same distance as Earth orbits the Sun.

"This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another 'Earth'", NASA said. Endite