NASA could reveal new planet capable of supporting life

NASA has found a 'second Earth' capable of supporting life.

The space agency is to hold an announcement revealing 'new discoveries' made by the Kepler Space Telescope responsible for finding habitable planets.

An artist's impression of a planet inside NASA's "habitable zone" capable of supporting life.

The Kepler Spacecraft was launched in 2009 with the specific aim of locating exoplanets. That is, planets with similar attributes to Earth and a safe enough distance from a parent star to sustain life.

When it's not snapping the first ever pictures of Pluto or scouring Mars for skeletons and pyramids, NASA is exploring the depths of space for life-supporting planets.

Now the space agency has put out a statement saying it will hold a press conference to reveal: "new discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope".

PA artist's impression of NASA's planet-finding Kepler space telescope artist's impression of Nasa's planet-finding Kepler space telescope.

The announcement will take place at 4pm on Thursday, July 23 and could involve the discovering of a second Earth that potentially supports life.

NASA releases impressive animated flyover of Pluto.

"Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago," a spokesperson for NASA said.

"Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years -- another Earth."

Earth as seen on July 6, 2015 from a distance of one million miles captured by a NASA scientific camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft.

Since its launch, the Kepler Spacecraft has picked out 1,028 planets and 22 of those are believed to have conditions suited to life.

NASA looks specifically for a planet to be in the "habitable zone" - the distance from a star that means the surface temperature can sustain liquid water.