Earth 2 & Sun 1

European astronomers "have discovered the most Earth-like planet to date outside our solar system" that might have water in liquid form all over it - which is obviously very important when it comes to supporting life.

Models show that the planet, located 20.5 light years away, is about 1.5 times the size of Earth, has a temperature of 0-40 degrees Celsius, and should be either rocky (like Earth) or covered in oceans. Besides the excitement around the potential for finding life on that planet, scientists will learn more about our own planet, and are hopeful that this discovery will give better clues as to where they should be pointing their more powerful telescopes in order to find new hospitable planets.

"Victoria Hipkin, a scientist with the Canadian Space Agency, said finding planets like Earth will provide a unique perspective of our own planet.

"One nice thing about finding an Earth-like planet is it's like looking both forward and backward in history," she said.

"We could see a planet as ours was, providing a look at our early evolutionary history, or we could see a planet older than ours that might provide clues as to where we're heading.""

In other space news, NASA has released the first-ever photos of our sun in three dimensions collected from the STEREO Mission.

"For the first time, scientists are able to see structures in the sun's atmosphere in three dimensions. This new view will greatly aid scientists' ability to understand solar physics and there by improve space weather forecasting."

Be warned, the photographs can only be properly viewed while wearing 3D glasses and NASA provides instructions for that on the site. Below is a sample of the images, the 2D on is on top and the 3D version follows.