NASA scientists have said that the discovery of new 715 planets beyond our solar system have brought them one step closer to find 'Earth 2.0', a planet which could support life. The new planets orbiting stars have been discovered by the Kepler space telescope.

It was also reported by the space agency that four new planets have been discovered to have habitable zone. They are neither too hot nor too cold because of orbiting their own suns at a right distance from them. Of them, one is double the size of earth and it orbits a star in a 30-day cycle that is half the size of the sun. On the other hand, the other three planets with the support for life are approximately the size of earth.

The announcement made by NASA has increased the number of planets outside our solar system to almost double. Of all the discovered planets, 95% are smaller than Neptune, which has the size four times of earth. They are orbiting as many as 305 stars and most of them are of the size of the sun or smaller.

The Kepler spacecraft was launched in 2009 to discover planets that are similar to earth. Since its launch, it has discovered 3,060 possible planets and 961 of them have been confirmed. The planets orbiting nearby stars are detected by the Kepler based on fluctuation in intensity of light, caused by the planets while eclipsing their stars.

"We've now developed a process to verify multiple planet candidates in bulk to deliver planets wholesale, and have used it to unveil a veritable bonanza of new worlds", said Jack Lissauer of NASA's Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, California.