Dr Mather from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland said the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could find habitable planets The giant tennis court-sized telescope will be used to scour the universe One of its key goals will be to observe worlds in other systems In ten to 15 years Dr Mather says we could find a planet with oceans But he says the only way to visit one would be to 'defeat Einstein' This would mean finding a way to travel faster than the speed of light Earlier this week astronomers announced they had found eight new potentially habitable planets - and two are the most Earth-like ever

By Gemma Lavender For All About Space Magazine and Jonathan O'Callaghan for MailOnline

Published: 05:39 EST, 8 January 2015 | Updated: 12:43 EST, 8 January 2015

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Earlier this week astronomers made the groundbreaking announcement that they had found eight new habitable planets using the Kepler space telescope - bringing its total up to 1,000.

But will we ever have a chance to glimpse these planets in greater detail, either by telescope or perhaps by visiting them in the future?

According to one of Nasa's top planet hunters, we will find a planet with oceans like Earth in the next 15 years - but visiting one would require us to overcome Einstein's law of special relativity.

Dr Mather from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Marylandexplained how the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could find planets with oceans on them (illustrated). The giant tennis court-sized telescope will be used to scour the universe. His full interview appears in issue 34 of All About Space magazine

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