NASA have confirmed the existance of a planet with the right distance from its star to support water, plus a suitable temperature and atmosphere to support life. They called it Kepler-22b, but I call it Earth 2!
Spinning around its star some 600 light years away, Kepler-22b is 2.4 times the size of the Earth, putting it in class known as “super-Earths,” and orbits its Sun-like star every 290 days.
Its near-surface temperature is presumed to be about 22 Celsius. Scientists do not know, however, whether the planet is rocky, gaseous or liquid.
The planet’s first “transit,” or star crossover, was captured shortly after NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft in March 2009. But lets face it, they’ve probably known about it since the days of Area 51 (how do you like that conspiracy fans?).
NASA also announced that Kepler has uncovered 1094 more potential planets, twice the number it previously had been tracking. So plenty of space to colonize and eventually conquer the galaxy.
