Kepler 22b was discovered last December by astronomers. Kepler 22b is a new planet located 620 light years away. The planet was the first to be in its star’s habitable area. It was the first planet ever discovered by the NASA kepler space telescope. The star’s habitable zone is a region that can contain water. We all are aware that water is a key component for life on earth. The Keplar telescope has discovered over 2,300 other planets that circle around other stars. Unfortunately, the Keplar is not capable of telling us information we want to know about the planets that is discovers. It can’t tell us if oxygen is present in the atmosphere, if the planet is rocky, or if it contains any type of water on its surface. When planets out of our solar system started being discovered in the mid-1990s, engineers of NASA wanted missions that could potentially answer these questions. One main one was called the Terrestrial Planet Finder. This was a 1 billion dollar telescope. It could determine the composition of the planet’s atmosphere by capturing the planet’s light

Information obtained at www.discovermagazine.com and pictures obtained at www.wikipedia.org and www.exep.jpl.nasa.gov