NASA has found 20 promising planets for human habitation

This discovery brings the total number of habitable, near-Earth-sized exoplanets to about 50.

This discovery brings the number of habitable exoplanets to 50.

An international team of scientists has found 20 more exoplanets that could sustain human life. If confirmed, this would increase the number of known extrasolar planets thought to be habitable, bringing the total number of habitable, near-Earth-sized exoplanets. to about 50 planets.

The Kepler space telescope was launched in 2009 with the specific task of searching for extrasolar planets. And scientists have used its data to confirm thousands of them. However, Kepler was damaged in 2013, but the area of ​​space it recorded in 4 years of operation has more than 150,000 stars, so there is still a lot of data to consider and study.

Scientists have come up with a list of 4,034 exoplanets with orbital periods ranging from 6 hours to 632 days. From that list, the team selected 20 candidates most likely to have the necessary characteristics to sustain life and made their findings public.

According to Jeff Coughlin, Kepler team leader and co-author of the paper, one of the most exciting of these new planets is KOI-7923.01. "If you have to choose a place to send a spacecraft to, it's not a bad choice," said Coughlin. The planet is 97 percent the size of Earth, with an orbit of 395 days. us and it is likely covered by a frozen tundra - though not so cold that it cannot support life."

However, Coughlin and his team are 70-80% sure their claims are reliable, but the team of scientists stress that things still need to be studied further before the exploratory missions. space is carried out.