Jupiter-like planet orbiting two suns discovered

The planet Kepler 1647b, located in the constellation Cygnus, was discovered by astronomers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre and San Diego State University (SDSU) in the US. 

Kepler-1647 is 3,700 light years away and about 4.4 billion years old, roughly the same age as the Earth researchers said. The stars are similar to the Sun, with one slightly larger than our home star and the other slightly smaller. 

The planet has a mass and radius nearly identical to that of Jupiter, making it the largest transiting circumbinary planet ever found. Planets that orbit two stars are known as circumbinary planets. 

Its orbit puts the planet in the so-called habitable zone - the range of distances from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. 

Like Jupiter, however, Kepler-1647b is a gas giant, making the planet unlikely to host life. Yet if the planet has large moons, they could potentially be suitable for life.