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Nasa animations illustrate planet Kepler-16b, discovered by Nasa's Kepler mission, circling two stars. (Courtesy Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory, no sound)

NASA has announced a torrent of new planet discoveries, hailing a "bonanza" of 715 worlds now known outside the solar system thanks to the Kepler space telescope's planet-hunting mission.

A new method for verifying potential planets led to the volume of new discoveries from Kepler, which aims to help humans search for other worlds that may be like Earth.

"What we have been able to do with this is strike the mother lode, get a veritable exoplanet bonanza," said Jack Lissauer, a planetary scientist at NASA.

This artist's impression illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Photo: NASA

"We have almost doubled just today the number of planets known to humanity," he said.

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The 715 newly verified planets are orbiting 305 different stars.

The latest announcement brings the number of known planets tobetween 1500 and 1800, depending on which of the five main extra-solar planet-discovery catalogues is used.

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NASA Kepler telescope discovers 715 new planets