Gerrard Kaonga
Astronomers have made an exciting discovery of a whopping 85 possible planets outside our solar system which may be able to sustain life.
Now, of course that doesn’t exactly mean little grey men running around with probing devices, but rather the more grounded idea that these exoplanets could possibly fall within the temperature zone for being able to sustain life.
Experts from the University of Warwick had been studying NASA satellite data when they made the discovery of the possible exoplanets.
You're probably wondering what exoplanets are, aren't you?
Advert
Well, they're basically planets that reside outside of our solar system and orbit another star.
Of these planets, they range in size from about 11,000 miles to as big as 350,000 miles in diameter. Keep in mind that the Earth’s diameter is just under 8,000 miles.
There have already been more than 5,000 exoplanets that have been discovered over time but no one knows which ones, if any, harbor any form of alien life.
What makes these planets so fascinating is that they are potentially just the right distance away from their local sun to sustain life, in that they are not too cold and not too hot, much like Earth.
The new study was led by PhD student Faith Hawthorn at the University of Warwick's Astronomy and Astrophysics department.
Speaking to the Mail Online, Hawthorn said: “All of the exoplanets are in 85 unique systems – one planet per star.
“Some of them could be rocky, some could be gaseous.
“It's quite rare for habitable planets to be discovered – you need a very specific set of conditions for habitability, and would need future work to confirm this.”
I wouldn’t quite start the celebration of alien life just yet however, as the research team have insisted there is still more to learn about these possible exoplanets, including exactly how far away they are from stars.
Early estimates reveal the 85 planets take between 20 and 700 days to orbit their host stars.
“We know the most probable time for orbit but it's not confirmed – and this informs the distance from the star,” Hawthorn added.
“There is plenty of scope for continued research into these exoplanets – to learn more about their exact orbital periods, whether or not they have moons, and what exactly they are made of."
The team has said at this stage their findings still need to be definitively confirmed by NASA but are hopeful this will be done with future observations.