NASA has announced the discovery of the smallest ever planet to date orbiting in a habitable zone, meaning it could have liquid water and similar conditions to our own planet Earth.

“Today we’re announcing the discovery of an exoplanet that as far as we can tell is a pretty good close cousin to Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

The planet, Kepler-452b, is located 1,400 light years away in the constellation Cygnus, and is larger than our own Earth, but has a very similar orbit time, of 385 days. It was discovered using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.

“We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment,” said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

“It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth. That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet.”

The planet’s sun is very similar to our own, although is 1.5 billion years older.

“The star is the same surface temperature and type as the Sun, a G2 star,” explained Jenkins.

It also burns 20% brighter and has been found to have a diameter 10% larger.

Although the scientists cannot be sure, they believe this new planet has a rocky surface, giving it a mass five times that of Earth, and is believed to have volcanic activity

If you were to walk on the planet, it is thought you would be twice as heavy as on Earth.

Given its similar characteristics to Earth, the team believes it will provide excellent sources of information about the future of our own planet.

While undoubtedly a remarkable achievement for the Keplar mission, the scientists believe this is the first of many planets they will discover with such a similarity to Earth.

“On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun,” said Grunsfeld.

“This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0.”

Kepler, which was launched in 2009, has discovered over 1,000 confirmed and 3,000 suspected exoplanets to date.