NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

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Source: NASA Kepler Mission

In a press conference this morning (2015 July 23), NASA's Kepler team announced discovery of planet Kepler-452b which has the closest match of planet characteristics to Earth: 60% larger than Earth, orbiting a Sun-like star in a 385 day orbit period, that puts it in the star's habitable zone. [Kepler confirmed planet count is now 1030.] The team also announced a new Kepler planet catalog with 4696 planet candidates (521 more than previous catalog).

http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=393

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