A study was performed on the Kepler space telescope's July 2015 planet candidate catalog, which identified 4,302 potential planets. For 1,284 of the candidates, the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent – the minimum required to earn the status of 'planet.' Nine of these orbit in their sun's habitable zone, which is the distance from a star where orbiting planets can have surface temperatures that allow liquid water to pool. With the addition of these nine, 21 exoplanets now are known to be members of this exclusive group. The inset graph shows the number of planet discoveries by year for more than the past two decades of the exoplanet search. Original Article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3582864/Is-Nasa-verge-finding-alien-life-Space-agency-set-reveal-latest-discoveries-Kepler-later-today.html Original Video: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/sciencetech/video-1290197/Graph-shows-Kepler-measuring-planets-pass-stars.html Daily Mail Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailymail Daily Mail IG: http://instagram.com/dailymail Daily Mail Snap: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/Daily-Mail/8392137033 Daily Mail Twitter: http://twitter.com/MailOnline Daily Mail Pinterest: http://pinterest.co.uk/dailymail Daily Mail Google+: https://plus.google.com/+DailyMail/posts Get the free Daily Mail mobile app: http://dailymail.co.uk/mobile