What we are trying to do is observe [planets] eclipsing their stars. Kepler will be put into space to avoid our unstable atmosphere.

It will be the first time that this will be done.

When we discover New Earth - a planet we could call home - the question of the 'plurality of worlds' will come front and center, reminding us yet again that we are not the center of the universe.

We love our planet Earth. We should - it is our home, and there's no place like home. There can't ever be a better place than Earth.

I grew up in Bulgaria in a small city on the Black Sea Coast, so I was very interested in the sea, marine life, and everything related to it. But it was also a very dark place at night, so I could see the stars. And I just got very interested in it.

We do care about planets like the Earth because by now we understood that life as a chemical system really needs a smaller planet with water and with rocks and with a lot of complex chemistry to originate, to emerge, to survive.