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DISCOVERED: Most Earth-Like Alien Planet Yet »
By: Mike Wall Published: 04/18/2013 02:55 PM EDT on SPACE.com NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered three exoplanets that may be capable of supporting life, and one of them is perhaps the most Earth-like alien world spotted to date, scientists announced today (April 18). That most intriguing one is called Kepler-62f, a rocky world just 1.4 times bigger than Earth that circles a star smaller and dimmer than the sun. Kepler-62f's newfound neighbor, Kepler-62e, is just 1.6 times larger than Earth, making the pair among the smallest exoplanets yet found in their star's habitable zone — the just-right range of distances where liquid water can exist on a world's surface. Kepler-62e and f, which are part of a newly discovered five-planet system, "look very good as possibilities for looking for life," said Kepler science principal investigator Bill Borucki, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. [9 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life] This diagram compares the planets of the inner solar system to Kepler-62, a newfound five-planet system with two potentially habitable worlds. Source Main page (current trends)
More about: Ames Research Center, Bill Borucki, earth, exoplanets, Kepler space telescope, Mike Wall, nasa