Habitable Planets in Other Solar Systems


Dreaming of relocating to another planet? The term "exoplanet" is used to describe any planet that orbits a star in a solar system other than our own. The Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo developed The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog to chart planets that are possibly habitable and have similarities to Earth. The catalog is based in part on data from NASA's Kepler Mission, which analyzes areas in our region of the Milky Way in search of planets from half to twice the size of Earth that are in a zone where the existence of liquid water and life is a possibility. 

Approximately 900 exoplanets have been confirmed by scientists, and there are over 2,500 others as yet unconfirmed. The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog currently lists nine potentially habitable planets discovered between September 2010 and December 2012. The most recent additions, Tau Ceti e and Tau Ceti f, are pictured above relative to the size of Earth. 

Learn more about the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog at the Planetary Habitability Laboratory. Link
 
(Photo Credit: Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico)


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