2 Earth-size planets spotted around distant star
Scientists have found two Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star. That's an encouraging sign for prospects of finding life in outer space, because scientists figure planets the size of ours are a good place to look.
The newly identified planets are too hot to support life as we know it. But their discovery shows that the Kepler spacecraft is capable of finding Earth-sized planets rather than just bigger ones.
The Kepler has turned up possible Earth-sized planets before, but the new report provides confirmation of the sightings.
The work was reported online by the journal Nature.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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