Astronomers have discovered an Earth-size exoplanet 300 light-years away while reanalyzing data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope that the agency retired in 2018. The newly found planet named Kepler-1649c, circles its star’s habitable zone, the area around a star where a rocky planet could sustain liquid water. The newly discovered exoplanet is only 1.06 times larger than our own planet. Moreover, the amount of starlight it draws from its host star is 75% of the amount of light Earth receives from our Sun. The planet revolves its small red dwarf star so closely that a year on Kepler-1649c is equivalent to only 19.5 Earth days. Considering red dwarf stars are among the most common in the galaxy, it indicates that planets like the Kepler-1649c could be more common than previously estimated.
