Do These Earth Like Planets Contain Life?

 today 4 370 exoplanets have been  discovered in  3 230 different star systems and that's  a lot  it seems as though as time goes by the  number of planets we're discovering  outside of our own solar system is  increasing exponentially  does this phenomenon mean that our odds  of finding another planet like earth  have gone up as well  welcome to  and we're  dishing out the details on some recent  celestial breakthroughs in new  earth-like planets that have recently  been discovered  the breakdown it took a really long time  to discover the first exoplanet  scientists knew that they have to be out  there it just wasn't until 1995 that we  had confirmation that our  solar system wasn't a fluke or a cosmic  one-off  there were other planets out there then  we have the ambiguously named  super earths or planets with mass one to  ten times that of our planet  one 1 329 exoplanets have been confirmed  as super earth so far  or a little under a third this name is  misleading however as they can be made  up of rock  gas or a combination of both they can  range from hot jupiters orbiting so  close to their stars that they're  essentially fiery orbs of doom  to being so far away from their sun that  they're cold inert balls of rock devoid  of any atmosphere  and everything in between that brings us  to the earth-like planets between 0.5  and 1.5 times the size of our blue world  and this time the name isn't just  misleading click bait  the age-old question of whether earth is  unique in the universe  and whether others could support organic  life has been answered  around every star exists a habitable  zone  rocky super earths in this range are  called goldilocks planets  where the temperature is not too cold as  to form ice not too hot to form steam  but just right for the existence of  liquid water  based on what we know carbon-based life  needs water to survive  so it's these planets that have the best  chance of finding ets and little green  men from outer space  added bonus the ability to support life  makes them ideal candidates to set up  human colonies  we just need to figure out a way to  travel the mind-bogglingly huge  distance first as you would expect these  planets are exceedingly rare  only 24 earth-like planets have been  detected so far  this begs the question which of these  are best suited to support life  number 5. kepler-1649c  while looking through old observations  from the kepler space telescope retired  in 2018  astronomers stumbled across a hidden gem  in april of this year  it turns out a computer algorithm  misidentified an exoplanet and not just  any exoplanet  one with a rocky composition that sits  in the goldilocks zone  if the data sent back by the kepler  space telescope was not analyzed  manually then we may have missed one of  our best chances at finding life outside  of our solar system  it's very similar in size to the earth  but little is known about its  atmospheric composition  whether it does contain water and the  topographical landscape  it only receives 75 percent of the light  that we do but it's enough to support  life it's relatively close to its red  door with a year lasting a brief  19.5 earth days the big worry is whether  the constant bombardment of the surface  of kepler-1649c with ionizing radiation  has either prevented the formation of  life or periodically kills it off  only to start again red doors are  notoriously unstable  and such close proximity lends itself to  an unstable environment on the exoplanet  despite it having an earth similarity  index or esi of 0.90  the human race will almost never  certainly get close to it  due to it being 300 light years away  number 4 trappist-1d the trappist-1  system is a literal  treasure trove of earth-like planets all  are rocky and some  may hold more liquid water than the  earth at first it was thought to contain  three and then later two and finally on  some closer inspection an amazing  seven all with the potential to contain  water in either solid  liquid or gaseous states trappist-1d is  the one that astronomers are really  excited about  sitting right on the edge of the  habitable zone  it's much smaller than earth only 77 to  size and having 41  the mass it has a molten core and an  atmosphere much like earth  bizarrely it orbits a rare ultra cool  dwarf star  less than a tenth of the size of the sun  but it's the little engine that could  having the ability to live up to 5  trillion years or 500 times longer than  our sun  trappist 1d still receives just 4.3  percent more  sunlight than the earth courtesy of it  sitting so close to it  up to five percent of its mass could be  liquid water  in comparison that is 250 times the  water found in  all of earth's oceans combined this vast  sea may have a frozen icy crust  but it's not certain whether any dry  land would be present on the exoplanet  number three k272e  the kepler space telescope picked up a  peculiar exoplanet during its second  light  mission it's remarkably similar to earth  however scientists are having trouble  gathering information to fill in the  gaps in its planetary story  so far we know it's a rocky exoplanet  around 2.2 times the size of the earth  it sits just one-tenth the distance from  its star compared to our earth's  distance from the sun  putting it in an orbit much the same as  mercury  unbelievably four other exoplanets sit  in closer orbits to the k-272 star  it's unusual in the fact that it's  tidally locked to the sun  meaning that one full rotation of the  planet is equal to the duration of its  solar year  this means that one side of the planet  is bathed in constant sunshine and the  back half is in perpetual darkness  it receives 11 percent more solar  radiation and sunlight than the earth  meaning the sun facing side may be hot  enough to evaporate water into steam  however this isn't been confirmed yet  most earth-like planets don't have the  conditions to boil off oceans  however k272e is unique in that it may  have a very broad temperature range  between the frozen wasteland of the dark  side  and the scorching tip of the planet  closest to the star  if there is dry land in this zone then  it's entirely possible that life exists  in this temperature range  even if it's daytime the whole year  round  number two toi 700d  toi 700d is the fruits of the labor of  nasa's transitioning exoplanet survey  satellite  called tess for short this program was  developed in direct response to the  first super earth ever discovered to  find out if goldilocks exoplanets really  do exist  nasa's spitzer space telescope was used  to help model the exoplanet's potential  environments and assess its viability as  an earth-like planet  the star at the center of this system is  a cool m-class roughly 40 percent of the  sun's mass and around half the surface  temperature  toi 700d is the outermost of four  planets in the system  and is a little chunky 2.6 the mass of  earth  despite its size it does still sit well  within the habitable zone of its star  and does have a rocky composition the  data points to the exoplanet being  almost completely covered by  ocean and having a carbon dioxide heavy  atmosphere with dense layers of cloud on  its sun-facing side  similar to how scientists picture a  young mars  it's tidally locked meaning that the  planet may contain a huge  ice cap covering the whole backside of  the planet  with the front half a mixture of oceans  and rocky pinnacles of dry land  number one tea garden star b the pick of  the bunch  t-garden star b is almost exactly the  same  size and mass as earth with a 60 chance  of having a temperate surface  environment  it's very likely that the surface of the  planet ranges from zero to 50 degrees  celsius with the majority of the planet  enjoying a balmy 28 degrees  this exoplanet is affectionately  referred to as earth 2.0  and for very good reason it's much  closer to its star completing a solar  year and just 4.9 earth days  the closer distance doesn't matter as  the red dwarf at the center of its  system is much smaller and cooler than  our sun  the good news is unlike other red dwarfs  this star is relatively stable and not  prone to periodic emissions of damaging  radiation from powerful solar flares  this little beauty has been awarded with  the highest esi  score ever coming in at 0.95  at 12 light years away it's currently  the fourth closest earth-like planet and  the best candidate for further study  scientists want to know more about its  atmospheric composition and whether the  gases present closely resemble the  nitrogen-rich  oxygen-containing air of earth current  analysis points to the possibility that  the surface is home to an  ocean of water sadly with our current  aerospace technology it would take an  astounding two hundred and eight  thousand four hundred thirty years to  travel to t garden star b  and that's only a one-way trip