In a step toward locating Earth-like planets that may hold life, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Monday its Kepler space telescope has confirmed its first planet in a habitable zone outside our solar system. The planet Kepler 22b, initially seen in 2009, is the first confirmed by the U.S. space agency. Confirmation means that astronomers have seen a planet crossing in front of its star three times. “Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet,” said William Borucki, the chief Kepler official at NASA Ames Research Center. Kepler 22b is 600 light years away, and is bigger than Earth, with an orbit of 290 days around a sun-like star. Earlier this year French astronomers confirmed Gliese 581d as the first exoplanet to meet key requirements for sustaining life. NASA also announced that Kepler has uncovered 1,000 more potential planets, twice the number it previously had been tracking, according to research being presented at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, California this week. Kepler is the first NASA mission seeking Earth-like planets orbiting stars similar to ours. It launched in early 2009, equipped with the largest camera even sent into space, and is expected to continue sending information back to Earth until at least late 2012. It is searching for planets as small as Earth in a warm habitable zone where liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet.
