Five Earth-like planets discovered by NASA

Life on our planet is thought to have arisen out of a pond-scum-like mix of chemicals. Some of these chemicals are thought to have come from a planet-forming disk of gas and dust that swirled around our young sun. This is an artist's conception that shows a hypothetical young planet, discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, around a cool star. A soupy mix of potentially life-forming chemicals can be seen pooling around the base of the jagged rocks Photo credit: NASARead Story: Most Earth-like planet yet spotted by NASA's Kepler

Kepler 186f, recently discovered by NASA, is claimed to be the most Earth-like planet detected till date. The planet is about 10 per cent larger than Earth and may very well have liquid water Photo credit: NASARead Story: Most Earth-like planet yet spotted by NASA's Kepler

HD 209458b, depicted in this artist's concept. Two of NASA's Great Observatories – the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, yielded spectral observations that revealed molecules of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor in the planet's atmosphere Photo credit: NASARead Story: Most Earth-like planet yet spotted by NASA's Kepler

This artist's conception illustrates Kepler-22b, the first planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth, making it the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star like our sun Photo credit: NASARead Story: Most Earth-like planet yet spotted by NASA's Kepler

Kepler-10b orbits one of the 150,000 stars that the Kepler spacecraft is monitoring between the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra. The diameter of Kepler-10b is only about 1.4 times the diameter of Earth and it's mass is about 4.5 times that of Earth. It is the best example of a rocky planet to date. Photo credit: NASARead Story: Most Earth-like planet yet spotted by NASA's Kepler