(CNN) -- NASA's Kepler space telescope has already made a discovery, and its science operations aren't even officially under way yet.
NASA scientists who put the telescope through a 10-day test after its March 6 launch said this week that Kepler is working well. Its ability to detect minute changes in light has enabled scientists to determine that a planet orbiting a distant star has an atmosphere, shows only one side to its sun and is so hot it glows. Full story:
* NASA's Kepler seeks another Earth among the stars... Astronomers Discover Earth-Like Planet Outside Solar System... Scientists from the European Southern Observatory working in Chile have found a new planet outside our solar system that is more like Earth than any other known planet... Like Earth, the new planet "Gliese 581c" orbits its sun in "the habitable zone." The estimated surface temperature is between minus 3 and 40 degrees celsius -- neither too cold nor too hot for life as we know it. This means there could be liquid water on the planet's surface...
- JAPANESE SCIENTISTS EYE MYSTERIOUS "PLANET X"-The researchers at Kobe University in western Japan said calculations using computer simulations led them to conclude it was only a matter of time before the mysterious "Planet X" was found:
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* NASA's Kepler Mission to Seek Other Earths... European Space Agency - Planet X - Follow The Money... Pope's star watcher to visit Nasa and talk aliens:
