A discovery by the Kepler space telescope from NASA has scientists excited: it has found an “alien Earth,” or a planet that resembles our own in terms of having a similar sun and a similar location in the “habitable zone” where temperatures aren’t too cold or too hot to support life.

Called Kepler-452b, the planet is actually 60 percent larger than Earth and it’s a long way from us — 1,400 light years away. Scientists were excited to make the find, the which is the most Earth-like planet yet found outside our solar system, as it appears to orbit a star similar to our own at a distance that would make it possible for water-based forms of life to thrive, according to a Space.com report.

Evidence for Kepler-452b was pulled from data that was collected years ago by the Kepler space telescope. The telescope had been on a planet hunt for four years ending in 2013 and has pulled in reams of data that scientists are only just now starting to crack the surface of. The mission cost $600 million.

Kepler was trying to find out how many Earth-like planets exist in our Milky Way galaxy, so it examined 150,000 stars, checking for tiny shifts in brightness to indicate the presence of a planet passing in front of it.

Kepler has had its issues, with the second of its four orientation maintaining reaction wheels malfunctioning back in May 2013, but the system has powered through that and continued with its mission. It has pulled in so much data that scientists are still sifting through it. There is hope that improvements to software and analysis techniques could speed up the process in the future, leading to more discoveries.