April 17, 2014

Found: An Earth-sized planet that might hold liquid water



In a dim and faraway solar system, astronomers have for the first time discovered a rocky, Earth-sized planet that might hold liquid water—a necessary ingredient for life as we know it.

The planet Kepler-186f is the fifth and outermost world orbiting the red dwarf Kepler-186. The slow-burning sun is smaller and cooler than our own. Too faint to be seen without a telescope, it's roughly 500 light years away in the direction of the northern constellation Cygnus (a light year is the distance light travels in a year).