The Next Earth Candidates
On March 21-2022, NASA had announced the cosmic milestone of finding more than 5000 exoplanets in our universe. Out of these Alien worlds, several planets with rocky composition and surface liquid water was reported. With conditions that support life and promising similarities with the earth, here are the top 17 Habitable exoplanets we discovered.
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double click on visualization to reset.
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use zoom and pan tools (click and drag right or left) to explore planets
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Hover over planets for more details
How are these planets similar to Earth ?
Since our Earth is the only planet known to have Life, Earths parameters are measured and compared between exoplanets to estimate likeliness of habitability. Some major parameters used for comparison are ESI score, Magnetic flux, Radius and Mass.
ESI (Earth Similarity Index)
a complex equation that measures similarity between a planet and Earth's stellar flux, mass or radius. Given that the Earths value is 1, Any planet with values closer to 1 is found more similar to Earth.
Radius
The size of a planet is determined by its radius. Given that Earths radius is 1, other planets radius is calculated in Earth radii (unit that compares with Earths radius).
Mass
Mass is predicted as minimum Mass for a planet. Mass of a planet is also calculated in comparison with Earths Masses (1.0 ME).
Magnetic Flux
The magnetic flux of a planet depends on the core of the planet which produces a magnetic field around the planet similar to that of Earth. This protects the planet from solar winds and radiations.
How do we find Exoplanets ?
From using powerful telescopes to sending them into space, over the years our thirst to explore space is only growing. Based on observations made from telescopes, satellites and space stations we use serval methods to find exoplanets. All the habitable planets on our list above are discovered by using either Radial Velocity method or Transit method, which are the most popular methods used till now.
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click on various Discovery methods to understand their contributions through time