NASA's Kepler space telescope has spotted 219 new potential planets, of which at least 10 are near-Earth size with conditions suitable to host life. <br/><br/>The new data is the most comprehensive and detailed catalogue release of candidate exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, from Kepler's first four years of data. <br/><br/>Programme scientist in the Astrophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Mario Perez, said in Washington that the Kepler data set is unique, as it is the only one containing a population of these near Earth-analogues – planets with roughly the same size and orbit as Earth. <br/><br/>He said, understanding their frequency in the galaxy will help inform the design of future NASA missions to directly image another Earth.