SEATTLE - s4story -- By: Chris Impey, University of Arizona

Astronomers now routinely discover planets orbiting stars outside of the solar system – they're called exoplanets. But in summer 2022, teams working on NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite found a few particularly interesting planets orbiting in the habitable zones of their parent stars.

One planet is 30% larger than Earth, and orbits its star in less than three days. The other is 70% larger than the Earth, and might host a deep ocean. These two exoplanets are super-Earths – more massive than the Earth but smaller than ice giants like Uranus, and Neptune.

I'm a professor of astronomy who studies galactic cores, distant galaxies, astrobiology, and exoplanets. I closely follow the search for planets that might host life.

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Earth is still the only place in the universe scientists know to be home to life. It would seem logical to focus the search for life on Earth clones – planets with properties close to Earth's. But research has shown that the best chance astronomers have of finding life on another planet is likely to be on a super-Earth similar to the ones found recently.

https://theconversation.com/super-earths-are-bigger-more-common-and-more-habitable-than-earth-itself-and-astronomers-are-discovering-more-of-the-billions-they-think-are-out-there-190496

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