NASA discovers Earth 2.0; here's everything you should know

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently supported a $100 million programme in search for the extra-terrestrial life. He said that there is a high possibility of life beyond Earth. Not only this, he further added that it is the right time to find about existence of life outside of Earth.

Now, this will take everybody by surprise as NASA's Kepler spacecraft, launched in 2009, has discovered a Earth-like planet around 1,400 light years away from our Earth.

Here is everything that you should know about the older cousin of Earth:

• The planet, named as Kepler-452b is extraordinarily similar to Earth and is orbiting around a star.

• It is the first terrestrial planet which resembles a lot like Earth in terms of water, orbit cycle and life sustaining substances.

• Kepler-452b is said to be 60 per cent bigger in size than Earth and lies in the constellation Cygnus.

• NASA has revealed that the planet takes 385 days to complete its orbit around the star. The space agency also says that Kepler-452b is a rocky planet. This means that Kepler-452b's year is only 20 days longer than ours.

• The planet's star, a sun, is almost 1.5 billion years older than our sun and it is now getting bigger and brighter. The same will happen to our star in the coming billion years.

• NASA announced that a total of 521 exoplanets have been discovered so far, out of which 12 have diameters very close to Earth. These exoplanets orbit around their star's habitable zone.

• Kepler spacecraft was launched by NASA in March 2009 to discover Earth-like planets orbiting a star.