News Space

First Earth-sized planets netted

Planet hunt finds two orbs of terrestrial proportions orbiting a distant sunlike star

By Nadia Drake

- More than 2 years ago

The newest exo-apples of the planet-hunting Kepler space telescope’s unblinking eye are two rocky, Earth-sized planets hovering around Kepler-20, a sunlike star 950 light-years away.

The first two Earth-sized exoplanets, Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are depicted here compared to Earth and Venus. Scientists think Kepler-20f could have an atmosphere, but suggest that extremely hot conditions on Kepler-20e would have evaporated any atmosphere.