GettyNASA have just announced the discovery of ten brand new ‘Earth-like’ planets as well as 219 previously undiscovered planets outside of our solar system.
The ten Earth-like ones are ‘rocky’ and are in their solar system’s, so called ‘Goldilocks zone’, which means they are not too close to their star (and thus too hot), nor are they too far away (and thus too cold for liquid water to exist). They’re ‘just right’.
As I’m sure you’re already aware – the potential presense of water on these Earth-like planets is a key factor in the possibility of them having life on them.
219 potential new worlds have been identified by scientists using @NASAKepler data. Explore: https://t.co/gvIEeJnUgB pic.twitter.com/Rj51K42UkJ
— NASA (@NASA) June 19, 2017
The planets were discovered by the amazing Kepler space telescope – meaning the total number of exo-planets found by the telescope is now above 4,000.
In a statement released by NASA, they wrote:
There are now 4,034 planet candidates identified by Kepler. Of which, 2,335 have been verified as exoplanets. Of roughly 50 near-Earth size habitable zone candidates detected by Kepler, more than 30 have been verified.
Additionally, results using Kepler data suggest two distinct size groupings of small planets. Both results have significant implications for the search for life.
GettyNot to get all tin-foil hat on you – but surely, somewhere out there, there is life…
We can’t be the only ones, can we?
