BY ELI FOGER

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Two new Earth-like planets were recently discovered in an ongoing attempt to find an “Earth Twin,” reports National Geographic. The planets are similar to Earth in size and they are located in the “habitable zone” which means they may be suitable for liquid water.

Kepler is an observatory launched by NASA with the hopes of finding Earth-like planets that are orbiting other stars. William Borucki, of NASA’s Ames Research Center, referred to the planets as “the best candidates for habitability of any found so far.” The planets have been dubbed Kepler-62e and -62f.

Kepler-62f is located in the constellation Lyra around 1,200 light-years from Earth according to NASA’s Kepler mission. The Kepler mission also states that the planet is 40 percent larger than Earth in size. While the size and location of the planet is known, the mass and composition remain somewhat of a mystery.

“If you were on Kepler 62-f  and looking at the sun, it would be a little less yellow than ours,” said Borucki, the science principal investigator for the Kepler Space Telescope. “And at sunset the sky would be more red. But otherwise it would basically look and feel the same.”

Key to a planet being considered habitable, is its location to the sun. The excitement around yesterday's discovery revolves around the assumption that these new planets are the right distance from the sun to have the ability to support life. "I would call this a breakthorugh discovery," said Borucki.