I, personally, think this is really fascinating news. They finally found proof of a planet with conditions probably like the earth. Some of the facts. About 600 light years away. Orbit at about 290 days. Average Temperature 22 C/ 72 F. Firmly in the habitable zone. About 2-3 times the size of the earth. Just an FYI the number of confirmed exo-planets is now over 2,000. I remember when the existence of other planets around stars was just a theory.
Being that far away (or that near considering the scale of the known universe) these characteristics are a best guess, but are certainly a very good best guess. There is no denying the importance of finding new habitable Worlds though, and finding this planet is an impressive achievement for the scientific community. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-22b http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Earth
This is an immensely awesome find. Could you imagine the possibilities if this planet supports life? What if it could support life similar to that of Earth? What if there are sentient beings there with our reasoning capabilities or greater? If such were the case, even if man is never able to travel there, it would be some comfort to know we're not as alone as we think we are. The efforts of our scientist are truly praiseworthy considering their relentless pursuit of finding the deep mysteries of space.
