8.1 day old moon
57.2% lit
February 22, 2017
Updated by Brian Resnick
The past few years (click here) have seen an explosion in the discovery of planets outside our solar system. Astronomers have now confirmed 3,442 exoplanets in the galaxy, and they think there could be 100 billion or more in total. But NASA and astronomers around the world aren’t just hunting for any ordinary planets. They’re particularly focused on the search for planets in the “habitable zone” of star systems, meaning, in theory, that water could exist on the surface in a liquid form. Finding Earth-size, potentially habitable planets is believed to be the first step to finding other life in the universe....
Poster for NASA Earth-sized planets, TRAPPIST-1. (click here) There is the possibility that future study of this unique planetary system could reveal conditions suitable for life.
SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOO Stars) (click here)
James Webb Space Telescope (click here)
