[quote]Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun. While planets have previously been found in the habitable zone, they are all at least 40 percent larger in size than Earth and understanding their makeup is challenging. Kepler-186f is more reminiscent of Earth. "The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind's quest to find truly Earth-like worlds." Although the size of Kepler-186f is known, its mass and composition are not. Previous research, however, suggests that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is likely to be rocky.[/quote] While the discovery of a new planet that has the possibility to harvest life is exciting, the planet is too far away for us to visit any time soon. [quote]Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system, about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus[/quote] With our current technology it would take us millions of years to travel to Cygnus. Although it's disappointing, the planet has been around for 6 billion years. So there could be highly intelligent life living there. Maybe more intelligent than humans, discuss.