![](https://lifeboat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/product-1-1024x576.jpg)
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter
A team of transatlantic scientists, using reanalyzed data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Kepler space telescope, has discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, the area around a star where a rocky planet could support liquid water.
Scientists discovered this planet, called Kepler-1649c, when looking through old observations from Kepler, which the agency retired in 2018. While previous searches with a computer algorithm misidentified it, researchers reviewing Kepler data took a second look at the signature and recognized it as a planet. Out of all the exoplanets found by Kepler, this distant world – located 300 light-years from Earth – is most similar to Earth in size and estimated temperature.
![](https://lifeboat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/product-3-labeled-1024x614.jpg)
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter