Kepler | The Search For Earth Like Planets

Kepler Mission to Hunt for Earth-like Planets

Are there other worlds like ours? Are we alone?















The mission will spend three and a half years surveying more than 100,000 sun-like stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy. It is expected to find hundreds of planets the size of Earth and larger orbiting at various distances from their stars. If Earth-size planets are common in the habitable zone (where conditions favor liquid water), Kepler could find dozens of worlds like ours. On the other hand, if those planets are rare, Kepler might find none.

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