WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2020) Scientists taking a second look at old observations from the Kepler Space Telescope discovered a planet in a distant solar system the same size as Earth at a distance from its host star suggesting the planet could support water, NASA said in a press release on Wednesday.
"Out of all the exoplanets found by Kepler, this distant world - located 300 light-years from Earth - is most similar to Earth in size and estimated temperature," the release said.
This newly revealed world named Kepler-1649c is 1.06 times larger than Earth. Also, the amount of starlight it receives from its host star is 75 percent of the amount of light Earth receives from the Sun - meaning the exoplanet's temperature may be similar to our planet's, the release added.
Nevertheless, supporting life could be a challenge because the planet orbits a red dwarf star, a type known for stellar flareups, the release said.
Scientists discovered this planet when looking through old observations from Kepler, which the agency retired in 2018. While previous searches with a computer algorithm misidentified it, researchers reviewing Kepler data took a second look at the signature and recognized it as a planet, according to the release.
