NASA announced on Thursday that the Kepler space probe has discovered a planet that is having many similarities to earth. The newly discovered planet has been named Kepler-452b and was the first planet to be present in a habitable zone of a star.

Its parent star known as Kepler-452 is older and hotter than our sun. The planet revolves around its sun every 385 days. Scientists have affirmed that the newly discovered planet has quite similarity with earth when it comes to size, but it is slightly bigger. In terms of mass, it is five times heavier than earth.

The Kepler-452 system was discovered in the constellation Cygnus, located 1,400 light years away. Researchers have affirmed that the planet could be having a rocky surface. Its atmosphere is quite thick. Therefore, there are chances that water could be present underneath.

Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California, was of the view that seeing all the factors it can be said that Kepler 452b has the potential to provide opportunity for life.

In 2009, Kepler was launched with an aim to discover earth-like planets revolving around a star and having possibility to sustain life. Till date, Kepler has discovered around 1,000 planets. Already, Kepler has discovered 12 planets in the habitable zone. Average size of these planets is between the size of earth and Neptune.