The new planet, Kepler-22b, is 600 light years from Earth and is the first planet found by NASA in the Kepler system to be deemed within the goldilocks zone based on its distance from the star, Kepler-22. Kepler-22b was discovered in 2011 and the planet's mass is roughly twice the size of Earth and has an orbital period of 290 days.
When the Mithraic Order ask Mother what her name is, she responds "Lamia." In ancient Greek mythology, Lamia was a woman who became a child-eating monster after her children were destroyed by Hera, who learned of her husband Zeus's tryst with her. Hera also afflicted Lamia with sleeplessness so she would anguish constantly.
The religious order in the series, The Mythraic Mysteries or Mithraism, was inspired by a real religion practiced in the Roman Empire from around the 1st to 3rd centuries BCE
The opening sequence of S1 E1 (at 00:55, when the spaceship arrives at Kepler-22b) shares some of the same aerial footage as in Ridley Scott's movie Prometheus (2012) (at 24:55, when spaceship Prometheus arrives at LV_223).
The series was shot in Cape Town, South Africa at the Film Afrika Studios, as well as in various locations in the Western Cape. South Africa's Western Cape province in the southern tip of the country provided a convenient location for both the surface of Kepler-22b and the interiors of the Mithraic ship. The quiet, rugged desert areas outside of Cape Town to the north of the city acted as the perfectly alien environment for a planet that is liveable, but not exactly hospitable. Despite the dryness of the environment, the Western Cape is also surrounded by the meeting point of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, adding to the geographic diversity of the world.