New Planet Could Support Life, NASA Says

A new planet discovered by NASA is the right distance from its sun to have water and possibly, life, the agency has announced. 

The planet, called Kepler-22b, is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth and oribts in the "habitable zone" of its host star. It is unclear weather Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, NASA says.

"This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a news release. "Kepler's results continue to demonstrate the importance of NASA's science missions, which aim to answer some of the biggest questions about our place in the universe."

Kepler-22b is 600 light-years away and orbits it sun every 290 days. To read more from NASA, click here. 

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