NASA today has announced that it has discovered and validated the existence of 1,284 previously unknown planets, including nine planets that have the potential to host life.

Discovered using the Kepler Space Telescope, the haul more than doubles the number of exoplanets – that is, planets orbiting a star other than the Sun – that have been found using the instrument.

“Today we are announcing the discovery of 1,284 exoplanets” said Timothy Morton, associate research scholar at Princeton University. “This is the most exoplanets ever announced at one time.”

The incredible batch of discoveries is the result of a new approach to validating a newly found planet, in order to determine that it is, in fact, a planet and not astronomical imposter.

“One of the great questions of all time is whether we are alone in the universe. We live in a time when humanity can answer this question, and one of the first steps is to detect planets around other stars, or exoplanets,” said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters.

“Today’s announcement adds dramatically to the number of planets confirmed by the Kepler Telescope.”

NASA has had vast datasets on potential planets for some time, however it has previously been very hard to confirm that the potential planets are genuine.

However, a new technique developed by Morton has changed the game for planetary detection.

“A new statistical validation technique enables researchers to quantify the probability that any given candidate signal is in fact caused by a planet, without requiring any follow-up observations,” NASA explained in a media release.

“This technique uses two different kinds of simulations– both simulations of the detailed shapes of transit signals caused by both planets and objects, such as a star, masquerading as planets, and also simulations of how common imposters are expected to be in the Milky Way galaxy.

“Combining these two different kinds of information gives scientists a reliability score between zero and one for each candidate. Candidates with reliability greater than 99% are called ‘validated planets’.”

This new method is particularly vital for the discovery of potentially habitable planets.

“This is going to be very important for NASA’s most valuable planets: the planets in a habitable zone,” explained Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. “Tim’s work has added nine new planets.”

These are planets that are less than twice the size of Earth, but are at an appropriate distance from a star to allow liquid water to exist.

It is hoped that by discovering more habitable planets at a faster pace, humanity will get closer to determining whether there is life on other planets.