One of the most amazing planetary systems has been discovered by the Kepler science team. A star system, some 600 light years from the Sun, harbors a small planet known as Kepler 22b.

The planet is some 2.4 times the size of the Earth, around a G5 spectral class star. Kepler 22b lies in the unique region that astronomers call the “habitable zone”; this is a region around a star, that is favorable to life as we know it.

The planet orbits around its parent star, once every 290 days on average.

Astronomers speculate that Kepler 22b, hay have surface conditions that provide temperatures as high as 72 degrees F. To date, the Kepler mission has found many related earthlike planets, but none that fit the near perfection of being placed so deeply into this “Earth” like location.

To learn more:

http://kepler.nasa.gov/

http://www.space.com/13857-nasa-kepler-mission-extension-alien-planets.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet

http://exoplanets.org/