NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
This artist's concept shows the NASA Kepler spacecraft, which is NASA's first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars.
NASA says it has identified as many as 262 'inhabitable planets' in the universe. It's just the latest findings from NASA's Kepler project, whose mission is to study and find new planets in space.
The Kepler Mission is making a survey of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and learn which might have habitable zones.
In a December 2012 relase, NASA says it's Kepler mission identified more than 18,000 possible planet-like objects. It will take much more research to learn if they are true planets. Read more about Kepler's research mission.
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NASA
This image from NASA's Cassini mission was taken on Nov. 27, 2012, with Cassini's narrow-angle camera. The camera was pointing toward Saturn from approximately 224,618 miles away. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
