Artist’s conception of the five potentially habitable exoplanets, with Earth and Mars to scale. Credit: The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, PHL @ UPR Arecibo

The list of exoplanets being discovered just keeps getting longer and longer. As the search progresses and technology improves, smaller-sized rocky worlds like Earth are now starting to be found. This is exciting because it is primarily these planets where extraterrestrial life of some kind could possibly exist. The most ideal planets (as far as we know) are those that orbit their stars in the “habitable zone” where temperatures could allow liquid water to exist on the surface.

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About the author

Paul Scott Anderson is a freelance space writer with a life-long passion for space exploration and astronomy. He currently writes for AmericaSpace, Universe Today and Examiner.com. His own blog The Meridiani Journal is a chronicle of planetary exploration.