Eight New Planets Might be Capable of Hosting Life, 2 'Most Earth-like'

Astronomers have discovered eight new planets in the so-called "Goldilocks" habitable zone, orbiting at a distance where liquid water, and possibly life, can exist. Two planets are said to be the most similar to Earth of any known exoplanets to date.

"Most of these planets have a good chance of being rocky, like Earth," Guillermo Torres, the lead scientist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, US, told a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

According to the astronomers, the two most Earth-like planets of the group are called Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b. Both orbit red dwarf stars that are smaller and cooler than the Sun. Their daily routine is as follows: Kepler-438b circles its star every 35 days, while Kepler-442b completes one orbit every 112 days.