Kepler Has Found the First Earth-Sized Exoplanet in a Habitable Zone!

http://www.universetoday.com/111319/kepler-has-found-the-first-earth-sized-exoplanet-in-a-habitable-zone/

April 17, 2014 - Universe Today
It’s truly a “eureka” moment for Kepler scientists: the first rocky Earth-sized world has been found in a star’s habitable “Goldilocks” zone, the narrow belt where liquid water could readily exist on a planet’s surface without freezing solid or boiling away. And while it’s much too soon to tell if this really is a “twin Earth,” we can now be fairly confident that they do in fact exist.

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Using the latest advanced imaging capabilities of the Gemini North and Keck II observatories located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, astronomers were able to determine that the signals detected by Kepler were from a small orbiting planet and not something else, such as a background or companion star.

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