Planet Kepler 22b Discovery Could Prove Ww’re Not Alone [Video]

On Monday, scientists made a startling discovery of an Earth-like planet outside of our solar system that may be habitable. The new planet is called Kepler 22b and circles a star about 600 light years away, which by astronomical standards, is pretty close. The planet is roughly twice the size of Earth, but it's distance from it's own star could mean an average surface temperature of around 72 degrees.

Planet hunting pioneer Geoff Marcy of the University of California - Berkeley says, "This is a phenomenal discovery in the course of human history and is the smallest, most nearly Earth-size planet ever found in the luke warm zone around another sun where life could thrive".

Another scientist, Natalie Batalha of the Kepler space telescope discovery team says the planet is "right smack in the middle of the habitable zone". See a video clip about the planet below.