An artist’s rendering of what Kepler 438b may look like. Harvard scientists have discovered the most earth-like planet ever in the Lyra constellation, some 470 light years away. Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) made the announcement at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle on Tuesday. Kepler 438b is slightly bigger than Earth and is in the orbit... 

A new, Earth-like, inhabitable planet has been discovered outside our solar system by American astronomer Thomas Barclay. The planet is almost the same size as Earth – just one-tenth bigger – and is orbiting a Red Dwarf star. The planet orbits around an M1 Red Dwarf, or small and relatively cool, star, where liquid (including water) can exist. Such planets are in the “Goldilocks” zone, scientists... 

The artist’s concept depicts Kepler-62f, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. Life on Earth-like planets can exist at least ten times farther away from their stars than previously thought, scientists found, putting in question our whole perspective on habitable zone distances. A... 

Artist’s impression: five planets orbit the star Tau Ceti, which is just 11.9 light-years from Earth. Astronomers have discovered that the closest Sun-like star, Tau Ceti, is orbited by five planets, one of which is in the “habitable range”. If its existence is confirmed, the planet could be the closest potentially life-harboring world to our own. Tau Ceti, twelve light years away, belongs... 

Next-door neighbour: An artist’s impression of the recently found planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, a member of the triple star system that is the closest to our own (click on the image to enlarge it) An Earth-sized planet has been found orbiting a star in Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbouring solar system. The mystery world circling Alpha Centauri B is thought to be much too hot to support... 

Alien home? The black spots represent 1,235 planets orbiting their suns. As a point of reference, the lone planet on the right below the top row represents our sun, with Earth and Jupiter as tiny black silhouettes. If aliens exist, these are what their planets look like, according to NASA. Astronomers at the U.S. space department have spent the last two years scouring the Milky Way for Earth-like planets... 

Starry night: New research estimates that there are some 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. Scientists have estimated the first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy and the numbers are astronomical – at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. And some 500 million of those planets are in what is known as the Goldilocks zone, where the climate is thought to be not-too-hot and not-too-cold,...