Earth's Bigger, Older Cousin Discovered By NASA’s Kepler Mission

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.” 

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone  the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet  of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.