Scientists Find 24 Exoplanets Even Better To Host Life Than Earth

Dhir Acharya - Oct 07, 2020

Earth is a wonderful planet to live on, but scientists have found 23 exoplanets that could be even better to host life than our home planet.

Astronomers have spent a lot of time searching for another “Earth,” an exoplanet that can host life the way our home planet does with the hope we can settle down somewhere else one day. As Earth has provided humans with an amazing environment to live in, we have to set high bars for our future home.

However, a paper published last month, led by geobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, identifies 24 exoplanets that are probably super habitable, even more suitable to host life than Earth itself.

Researchers have found two dozens of new exoplanets

The research team came up with a set of criteria to see if a planet is potentially super habitable. The criteria include age from 5 to 8 billion years (our Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old) as well as a location within the habitable zone of a star where there could be liquid water. The researchers also sought long-lived stars cooler than the Sun.

Instead of looking for Earth clones, the research team focused on more massive planets than our home planet. On Monday, the Washington State University that the researchers work for stated:

“One that is about 1.5 times Earth's mass would be expected to retain its interior heating through radioactive decay longer and would also have a stronger gravity to retain an atmosphere over a longer time period.”

These exoplanets can even host life better than Earth

Those criteria were applied to 4,500 exoplanets known to researchers and they could identify 24 of them that were the closest to meeting the requirements. Though none of them ticked all the boxes, they are the sign that there are other life-friendly planets in the universe than just Earth. WSU said:

“Habitability does not mean these planets definitely have life, merely the conditions that would be conducive to life.”

Another thing to consider is that the candidates are more than 100 light-years away from Earth, which is too far for us to reach.

However, these findings suggest that we may not find planets exactly like Earth but even better to host life. From here, in the future, we can direct resources of space telescopes like the James Webb.

“We have to focus on certain planets that have the most promising conditions for complex life. However, we have to be careful to not get stuck looking for a second Earth because there could be planets that might be more suitable for life than ours.”