Astronomers spot Earth-like planet that has a yearly cycle of 378 days

It's always a blast when astronomers spot another planet that is really similar to Earth, as most planets out there are baron wastelands that are either too hot or too cold.

Luckily, astronomers are really good at finding planets, and sometimes with a little bit of luck, they find one that is really similar to Earth. According to a new report in MIT Technology Review, astronomers have located a new planet that is likely an exoplanet, and it's called KOI-456.04. This planet is just under two times the size of Earth, and shares about 93% of the same light our planet receives.

The team managed to locate this planet with the old Kepler Space Telescope, and pulled the diamond in the rough out using algorithms that study a star's brightness. The algorithms target a star and constantly observe it waiting for it to dim, and once it does dim, it indicates an object, and sometimes a planet has passed in front of it. While I previously do say that KOI-456.04 is a planet, I must be accurate; scientists are 85% sure that KOI-456.04 is a planet, but for that to be confirmed, studies have to hit the 99% mark. Once that mark is hit, KOI-456.04 is officially an exoplanet.

On top of all that great news, KOI-456.04 has an orbital cycle that only takes 378 days, which is very similar to our own.