Scientists have discovered a planet that’s a “candidate” for Earth like conditions in the habitable-zone of a sun 600 light years away.

Although it’s unclear whether or not the planet, officially called Kepler 22-b, is a rock, gas or liquid mass, temperatures are estimated to be 22 degress centigrade. This temperature means that liquid water is a possibility, so local flora and fauna may be discovered, or terraformed. Furthermore it is estimated that the planet has a year of 290 earth days, so it wouldn’t be a huge adjustment from our own 365.

Now, in my head this is the first step towards, I don’t know… Star Wars or Firefly or living in some other science fiction setting. Of course there is the stumbling block of it being 600 light years away, and that we haven’t mastered anything more than rudimentary space travel. And that it’s only a tentative “maybe”… But you know. It’s kind of exciting!