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The Light-Years Search for Life-Sustaining Planets

Research Finds 70 Potentially Habitable Exoplanets

We only have one planet—Earth—called home, though it’s easy to take for granted the alignment of factors that make sustaining life here possible. As the search for extrasolar planets (exoplanets) advances, below are some facts of potentially habitable exoplanets and how they compare with Earth.


The Light-Years Search for Life-Sustaining Planets

  1. According to NASA, over 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered since the discovery of the first one in the 1990s.

  2. The Planetary Habitability Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo has a Habitable Worlds Catalog (HWC) with 70 potentially habitable worlds. Of these, 29 are “more likely to be rock planets capable of surface liquid water” and 41 “might include water worlds or mini-Neptunes with a lower likelihood of habitable conditions.”

  3. Out of the 29 promising exoplanets, Proxima Centauri b is the closest, at 4.2 light-years away from Earth. Its orbital period (around its host star) is 11.2 days, and it is frigid, with an estimated low surface temperature of 261 K (-12°C or 10.4°F). Despite it being in the habitable zone, it can suffer from powerful UV radiation—up to 10,000 times as much as that experienced by Earth—from its host star, leading to atmosphere loss.

  4. Teegarden’s Star b has the closest Earth Similarity Index (ESI)—compared to how much radiation Earth emits—of 0.97 in the HWC. Its orbital period is 4.91 days, and it has an estimated surface temperature of 293 K (20°C or 68°F), which is much closer to that of Earth. However, a 2024 study reevaluated this exoplanet’s habitability, dropping its ESI to 0.90 and a colder equilibrium temperature of 277 K (4°C or 39.2°F).

  5. Out of the “optimistic” sample of 41 exoplanets, Wolf 1061c is the closest, at 14 light-years away from Earth. Its orbital period is 17.9 days, and it has a higher estimated surface temperature of 306 K (33°C or 91.4°F). However, excessive tidal heating (flexing or bending of a planet or moon in orbit through gravity) “might adversely affect the habitability” of Wolf 1061c.

 

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