Scientists Discover Planets Most Similar to Earth Yet

Scientists have discovered 8 new exoplanets, which are planets that orbit stars other than our sun, and two of these are the most similar to Earth of any planet found in deep space.

Science Daily reports that the planets were found in the "Goldilocks" zone of their respective stars. The "Goldilocks" zone refers to the tale of Goldilocks and the three bears. Just as Goldilocks found a porridge that was just right for her, not too hot or cold, these planets are located at distances from their stars that are theoretically just right for the formation of liquid water on their surface.

The two planets most similar to Earth orbit stars that are cooler and smaller than the Sun and are called Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b. The first completes a full orbit around its sun in just 35 days, while the second completes the task in 112 days.

Kepler-438b is only 12% larger than Earth and Kepler-442b is around 33% bigger. Both planets also have a fairly good chance of being rocky like Earth. Kepler-438b has a 70% likelihood of being rock, while Kepler-442b has a 60% chance.

Kepler-438b receives around 40% more light than Earth, which means it has only a 70% chance of being habitable. Kepler-422b on the other hand gets about 66% of the light that the Earth gets, which increases its chances of being habitable to 97%, according to Science Daily.

The planets were discovered by evaluating images sent to Earth from NASA's Kepler spacecraft, which was launched in 2009 with the purpose of locating planets such as Kepler-438b and Kepler-422b.

Science Daily notes learning more about the planets will be difficult because of their distance from Earth and other spacecraft that can be used to look in the direction of the planets. Kepler-438b is 470 light years away, while Kepler-422b is 1,100 light years away.