NASA announced Tuesday that its Kepler Space Telescope has discovered another 1,284 planets. The latest finding marks the single largest discovery of planets ever, and more than doubles the number of planets that Kepler has confirmed. "This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth," Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said. NASA believes some of the new planets discovered are roughly the same size as Earth and could be habitable.
The $600 million space telescope was launched in 2009, and the latest finding marks its second successful haul. During the first leg of the telescope's mission in 2009, more than 1,000 planets were confirmed, including 12 that are about the size of Earth. In total, there are now more than 3,200 verified planets — 2,325 of which were discovered by Kepler.
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