The new discovery, Kepler-452b, fires the planet hunter's imagination because it is the most similar to the Earth-sun system found yet: a planet at the right temperature within the habitable zone, and only about one-and-a-half times the diameter of Earth, circling a star very much like our own sun. The planet also has a good chance of being rocky, like Earth, its discoverers say.
Kepler-452b is more similar to Earth than any system previously discovered. And the timing is especially fitting: 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the first exoplanet confirmed to be in orbit around a typical star.
More here http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2015-244&rn=news.xml&rst=4666
Compiled by Michael500ca