NASA FINDS EARTH-LIKE PLANET Kepler 22-B The planet is smack in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone, that hard to find place thats not too hot, not too cold, where water, which is essential for life, doesnt freeze or boil. And it has a shopping mall-like surface temperature of near 72 degrees (22 degrees Celsius), scientists say. The planets confirmation was announced by NASA along with other discoveries by its Kepler telescope, which was launched on a planet-hunting mission in 2009. Thats the first planet confirmed in the habitable zone for Kepler, which had already found Earth-like rocky planets elsewhere. Twice before astronomers have announced a planet found in that zone, but neither have been as promising. "This is a phenomenal discovery in the course of human history," Geoff Marcy of University of California, Berkeley, one of the pioneers of planet-hunting outside our solar system, said in an email. "This discovery shows that we Homo sapiens are straining our reach into the universe to find planets that remind us of home. We are almost there." The new planet – named Kepler-22b – has key aspects it shares with Earth. It circles a star that could be the twin of our sun and at just about the same distance. The planets year of 290 days is even close to ours. It likely has water and rock. The only trouble is the planets a bit big for life to exist on the surface. The planet is about 2.4 times the size of Earth. It could be more like the gas-and <b>…<b>
