Scientists and their Kepler spacecraft have discovered for the first time a planet in distant space that is much like Earth, circling a sun-like star and lying in a region neither too hot nor too cold for an atmosphere that could support some form of life.
The temperature on that planet, the scientists say, probably is a comfortable 72 degrees, rain or shine.
Dubbed Kepler 22b, the planet exists in what astronomers call the habitable zone of a solar system at whose center is a star only a little smaller and fainter than Earth's sun. It lies about 600 light-years away and is 2.4 times Earth's size, although its mass is still unknown
Kepler 22b circles its sun every 290 days, compared with Earth's year of 365 days, the Kepler team has determined
