February 26, 2014: NASA announced a breakthrough addition to the catalog of new planets.
Researchers using Kepler have confirmed 715 new worlds, almost quadrupling the number of planets previously confirmed by the planet-hunting spacecraft.
Some of the new worlds are similar in size to Earth and orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars. All of the newly-discovered worlds are located in multi-planet systems.
Nearly 95 percent of the planets are smaller than Neptune—that is, less than four times the size of Earth. This is a marked increase in the known number of relatively small planets.
Four of the new planets are less than two-and-a-half times the size of Earth. Moreover, they orbit in their sun's habitable zone, where the surface temperature of the planets may be suitable for liquid water, a key ingredient for life as we know it. science.nasa.gov