In the never-ending exploration of outter space, scientists at NASA Ames, have discovered the first planet in the "habitable zone" near a sun-like star.
NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface.
The planet dubbed Kepler-22b, similar to Earth, is about 2.4 times the size of our planet, and is one of about 1000 other possible candidates, the mission has discovered.
"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, "the first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season."
Keppler-22b is 600 light-years away, and it is not yet known if the surface is mostly rocky, gaseous or liquid.
