--- title: New Earth-like Planets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Telescope description: NASA's Kepler mission discovers three earth-like planets existing in their star's "Goldilocks zone." canonical: https://time.com/3678418/nasa-kepler-mission-milky-way-exoplanet/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-22T16:22:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:02:35.792Z article:section: Science og:title: New Earth-like Planets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Telescope og:description: The Kepler mission just found three new planets in the 'Goldilocks zone' of a star og:url: https://time.com/3678418/nasa-kepler-mission-milky-way-exoplanet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e044c3bf1066b4/69877b473c1639dab345151b/kepler-1920-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: New Kepler Planets og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Earth-like Planets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Telescope twitter:description: The Kepler mission just found three new planets in the 'Goldilocks zone' of a star twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e044c3bf1066b4/69877b473c1639dab345151b/kepler-1920-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How NASA Finds 'Super Earths' Where Alien Life Might Flourish > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=81366d65-f752-4185-902b-a847c8a3900c&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: New Earth-like Planets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Telescope [Watch (HLS stream): New Earth-like Planets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Telescope](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fCApPc72.m3u8) (1:58)  _Published 2015-01-22. NASA's Kepler mission discovers three earth-like planets existing in their star's "Goldilocks zone."_ by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Jan 22, 2015 4:22 PM UTC by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Jan 22, 2015 4:22 PM UTC Since 2009 NASA’s Kepler Mission has been exploring the Milky Way using an extraordinary powerful space telescope. Their mission is to discover “exoplanets” or Earth-like planets that could, in theory, be habitable for human life. But what makes a planet habitable? Scientists say habitable planets should be in an area round the star known as the “Goldilocks zone,” where it isn’t too hot or cold for water to exist on the surface in liquid form. Thus far, the mission has confirmed many such candidates, including a [significant discovery](http://arxiv.org/abs/1501.03798) of three planets announced in January 2015. Jeffrey Kluger explains the significance of this newest discovery and the importance for humanity to continue space exploration. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The Kepler space telescope is a telescope that has been orbiting the sun since 2009 and its whole job is to look for what are known as exo- planets, planets orbiting stars other than the sun. It stares at a single patch. At the Milky Way without blinking, forever. And what it's looking for are flickers in starlight that indicate a planet passing front of its sun, slightly dimming the light that reaches us. The biggest goal of the Kepler mission is to find what astronomers call Mirror Earths. Planets like ours around the size of Earth, orbiting in what's called, a Sun's Goldilocks Zone. The place where it's not too hot, not too cold. just right for water to exist in liquid form. Water, of course, is the essential ingredient for life, as we know it. What we just discovered. Were two planets that are orbiting their sun in the Goldilocks Zone, almost certainly warm enough, but not too warm. Not too cold for water to exist in liquid form. And they're also close to the size of Earth. This suggests they could be rocky worlds like Earth is, as opposed to giant gas balls like Neptune and Jupiter are. And that's significant because that's an easier place for life to take hold. Missions like Kepler are important because humanity is a little bit like fish in an aquarium. It might be the most magnificent, most richly equipped aquarium in the world, but we're on one side of the glass. We're looking out. We're looking across the living room, out the window of the house, down the block. We wanna get there. Our curiosity makes us ache to get there. 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