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A hypothetical planet is depicted in this artist concept moving through the habitable zone and then further out into a long, cold winter.

Relative sizes of Kepler habitable zone planets discovered as of 2013 April 18. Except for Earth, these are artists renditions.

Three of the TRAPPIST-1 planets dwell in their star so-called habitable zone, shown in green. This is the band around the star where temperatures are just right, not too hot, not too cold, for liquid water to pool on the surface of an Earth-like world

Of the 1,030 confirmed planets from Kepler, a dozen are less than twice the size of Earth and reside in the habitable zone of their host stars. In this diagram, the sizes of the exoplanets are represented by the size of each sphere.

This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first habitable zone planet -- the sweet spot around a star where temperatures are right for water to exist in its liquid form, discovered by NASA Kepler mission.

This artist concept depicts Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone, a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet surface.

The artist concept depicts Kepler-62f, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra.

This artist conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star habitable zone.

This artist concept depicts in the foreground planet Kepler-62f, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of its star, which is seen peeking out from behind the right edge of the planet.

The artist concept depicts Kepler-69c, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star like our sun, located about 2,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

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