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NASA scientists have discovered the first planet as big as Earth orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" of the Milky Way. Habitable zone is considered the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. 

The discovery made by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope is a proof that planets size of Earth do exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun. 

NASA scientist Thomas Barclay said the discovery of the planet was a "milestone" in attempts to find out whether there are places "just like home", as quoted by The Telegraph.

"Kepler-186f orbits a star that is cooler and dimmer than the sun so while we may have found a planet that is the same size as Earth and receives a similar amount of energy to what Earth receives, it orbits a very different star, so perhaps instead of an Earth twin we have discovered an Earth cousin."

"This is the first validated Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of another star," said Elisa Quintana, a research scientist at the SETI Institute and the NASA Ames Research Center.

"It is no longer in the realm of science fiction," Quintana said during a NASA news conference broadcast Thursday, according to AZStarnet. 

Experts said it is to early to say if the planet was habitable. "We don't know if the planet is habitable," said Kepler scientist Steve Howell. "We don't know if it has an atmosphere, and that probably will not be known," he said. "That kind of raises the question 'Oh, what's the point?' " added Howell.