Named Kepler-186f, the new planet orbits a red dwarf star about 500 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus, is only 10 percent larger than our planet, and could have liquid water, which is essential for life as we know it.

 

Kepler-186f isn't the first Earth-like planet found, nor is it the first to be found in a habitable or “Goldilocks” zone – that is, the region around a star where the temperature of a planet could be within the range where liquid water could exist. However, the Earth-like planets found so far inside the zone have all been much larger than the Earth, with the previous most Earth-like planet, Kepler-62f, coming in at 40 percent larger than our planet.