Space..The Final Frontier

Its surface is a comfortable 22C (72F), while the star it orbits could almost be a twin of the Sun, the space agency claims.

As it was spotted in the so-called ‘habitable zone’, Kepler-22b probably has water and land – making it the best target for life.

Kepler principal investigator Bill Borucki (Picture: Getty)

'We have now got good planet confirmation with Kepler-22b,' said Bill Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at Nasa's Ames Research Center.

'We are certain that it is in the habitable zone and, if it has a surface, it ought to have a nice temperature.

'Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet.'

While Kepler-22b is similar Earth, it is 2.4 times the size, putting it in class known as 'super-Earths'. It's orbit around its star is approximately 290 days long, slightly shorter than our own.

'This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin,' said Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at Nasa headquarters in Washington.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/883981-earth-2-0-kepler-22b-is-best-chance-yet-of-planet-to-support-life-says-nasa#ixzz1fpj08bM0