The Philippine Online Chronicles

A planet that may sustain human life has been found 600 lightyears away. The planet, dubbed Kepler 22-b, is within the “Goldilocks” or “habitable” zone – it is neither too cold nor too hot for life too thrive, and can maintain liquid water.

It is one of 207 Earth-sized planets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission, which uses the Kepler Space Telescope to identify planets similar to ours. 10 of these planets have also been said to be within the Goldilocks zone, although Kepler 22-b is the first planet to be confirmed by other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.

“This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," said Kepler program scientist Douglas Hudgins.

"Kepler's results continue to demonstrate the importance of NASA's science missions, which aim to answer some of the biggest questions about our place in the universe,” he added.

Science website io9 adds that the Kepler program has discovered at least 2,326 new planets in its three years in operation.

"The tremendous growth in the number of Earth-size candidates tells us that we're honing in on the planets Kepler was designed to detect: those that are not only Earth-size, but also are potentially habitable," says Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State University.

"The more data we collect, the keener our eye for finding the smallest planets out at longer orbital periods. We are really zeroing in on the true Earth-sized habitable planets."

However scientists have yet to determine Kepler 22-b's composition.

William Borucki of NASA’s Ames Research Center says that Keper 22-b may be a rocky or icy planet, or even a global ocean.

Nonetheless he said during a press conference that the discover is “a great gift.”

“We were very fortunate to find it,” he said.