Scientists Discover Planets More Habitable Than Earth

Just about 30 years ago, we didn’t have any scientific proof of a planet outside our solar system. Today, thanks to advances in technology and scientific research, we've discovered over 5,300 exoplanets - alien worlds that are out there waiting to be explored.

At first, these discoveries mostly involved large gas giants, but as our capabilities have expanded, we've started to uncover smaller, Earth-like exoplanets. Scientists have already found more than 50 exoplanets with masses similar to Earth, and over 800 worlds with radius less than one half times that of Earth.

We don’t know of many such planets orbiting in the habitable zone of their parent stars - where the conditions are just right to support life. But that's already starting to change.

As our search for habitable planets continues, we're beginning to discover entire planetary systems with more than one potentially habitable world. And we already know about at least one such system in our cosmic neighborhood.