Some Planets May Be Better for Life Than Earth: Researchers Identify 24 Superhabitable Exoplanets

Billions of Earth Like Planets

Researchers have discovered around two dozen planets beyond our solar system that potentially offer more favorable conditions for life compared to our own.

Earth is not necessarily the best planet in the universe. Researchers have identified two dozen planets outside our solar system that may have conditions more suitable for life than our own. Some of these orbit stars that may be better than even our sun.

A study led by Washington State University scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch recently published in the journal Astrobiology details characteristics of potential “superhabitable” planets, that include those that are older, a little larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter than Earth. Life could also more easily thrive on planets that circle more slowly changing stars with longer lifespans than our sun.

The 24 top contenders for superhabitable planets are all more than 100 light years away, but Schulze-Makuch said the study could help focus future observation efforts, such as from NASA’s James Web Space Telescope, the LUVIOR space observatory and the European Space Agency’s PLATO space telescope.

“With the next space telescopes coming up, we will get more information, so it is important to select some targets,” said Schulze-Makuch, a professor with WSU and the Technical University in Berlin. “We have to focus on certain planets that have the most promising conditions for complex life. However, we have to be careful to not get stuck looking for a second Earth because there could be planets that might be more suitable for life than ours.”

Superhabitable Exoplanet

For the study, Schulze-Makuch, a geobiologist with expertise in planetary habitability teamed up with astronomers Rene Heller of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and Edward Guinan of Villanova University to identify superhabitability criteria and search among the 4,500 known exoplanets beyond our solar system for good candidates. Habitability does not mean these planets definitely have life, merely the conditions that would be conducive to life.

The researchers selected planet-star systems with probable terrestrial planets orbiting within the host star’s liquid water habitable zone from the Kepler Object of Interest Exoplanet Archive of transiting exoplanets.

While the sun is the center of our solar system, it has a relatively short lifespan of less than 10 billion years. Since it took nearly 4 billion years before any form of complex life appeared on Earth, many similar stars to our sun, called G stars, might run out of fuel before complex life can develop.

In addition to looking at systems with cooler G stars, the researchers also looked at systems with K dwarf stars, which are somewhat cooler, less massive, and less luminous than our sun. K stars have the advantage of long lifespans of 20 billion to 70 billion years. This would allow orbiting planets to be older as well as giving life more time to advance to the complexity currently found on Earth. However, to be habitable, planets should not be so old that they have exhausted their geothermal heat and lack protective geomagnetic fields. Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, but the researchers argue that the sweet spot for life is a planet that is between 5 billion to 8 billion years old.

Size and mass also matter. A planet that is 10% larger than the Earth should have more habitable land. One that is about 1.5 times Earth’s mass would be expected to retain its interior heating through radioactive decay longer and would also have a stronger gravity to retain an atmosphere over a longer time period.

Water is key to life and the authors argue that a little more of it would help, especially in the form of moisture, clouds, and humidity. A slightly overall warmer temperature, a mean surface temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius (or about 8 degrees Fahrenheit) greater than Earth, together with the additional moisture, would be also better for life. This warmth and moisture preference is seen on Earth with greater biodiversity in tropical rainforests than in colder, drier areas.

Among the 24 top planet candidates none of them meet all the criteria for superhabitable planets, but one has four of the critical characteristics, making it possibly much more comfortable for life than our home planet.

“It’s sometimes difficult to convey this principle of superhabitable planets because we think we have the best planet,” said Schulze-Makuch. “We have a great number of complex and diverse lifeforms, and many that can survive in extreme environments. It is good to have adaptable life, but that doesn’t mean that we have the best of everything.”

Reference: “In Search for a Planet Better than Earth: Top Contenders for a Superhabitable World” by Dirk Schulze-Makuch, René Heller and Edward Guinan, 18 September 2020, Astrobiology.
DOI: 10.1089/ast.2019.2161

137 Comments on "Some Planets May Be Better for Life Than Earth: Researchers Identify 24 Superhabitable Exoplanets"

  1. It may well be that given a range of conditions on several critical parameters, with long enough pauses between catastrophic events, development of life and it’s evolution to complexity, is inevitable.

    • Torbjörn Larsson | October 5, 2020 at 6:28 am | Reply

      Evolving life seems inevitable given habitable conditions, seeing how early it started and how diversifying the process is here.

      Complexity as in multicellulars show the same pattern since biofilms and spore forming prokaryotes also evolved early. But it goes downhill from there, fungi, plants and animals evolved late and body plan animals only once; the same goes for language capable species who – like the elephant trunk – only evolved once. So that should be rare (if you ask most biologists).

      • Not sure you can definitively say that a soft tissue organ like a trunk only evolved once based on the fossil record. Just saying.

  2. Still waiting for cat girls…

  3. Sergio Castillo jr | October 5, 2020 at 2:55 am | Reply

    We will never really know until we get there.

  4. Dnes s nasim antigravitacnim pohonem muzeme byt na kterekoli planete do 3 let casu astronautu, ale porad nevime kam letet.

  5. Excuse me..did the author say that if earth was a warmer planet, it would be a better planet???

    • Torbjörn Larsson | October 5, 2020 at 6:31 am | Reply

      Earth has had more productive eras, if you count Net Primary Production of biomass, due to plants (e.g. the Carboniferous).

      If you implicitly ask why man made global warning is costly and risky, it is because the change is 1.000 times faster than any earlier climate change, in addition to that current life was adapted to pre-warming climate. E.g. pandemic risks go up when the climate warms. Ring any bells?

    • That’s for life processes in general — not for Earth creatures, which have evolved to adapt to Earth’s conditions.

    • Warmer and wetter. One without the other is not so good.

  6. Someday they’ll get there🌍🌌

  7. Lets Start enforcing laws against ocean dumping with the death penalty. Plastic oceans. Take care of this planet so it takes care of us.

    • Torbjörn Larsson | October 5, 2020 at 6:32 am | Reply

      Let’s never suggest murders, not even by states.

      • But how will we make Soylent Green? I went to the market this morning and in the back of my mind a tiny loudspeaker was saying “Tuesday is Soylent Green day”

  8. Old Retired Guy | October 5, 2020 at 4:44 am | Reply

    @Pete – Yes he did, indeed warmer and wetter. As someone who’s been to warmer and wetter places I forward the thought that we might meet sentient mold there. lol

  9. William T Lach | October 5, 2020 at 4:45 am | Reply

    Getting a little too picky, are we???

  10. “5 degrees warmer”

    Instructions unclear, leaving my car on overnight to hopefully help Earth go the right direction.

  11. Forgot to tell what conditions it has and what’s the planets name

    • Torbjörn Larsson | October 5, 2020 at 6:34 am | Reply

      “Only one of the candidates (KOI 5715.01) fits all three criteria, but it has a predicted lower global temperature than Earth when a gray atmosphere model is used that includes an approximation for a greenhouse effect (Table 3). However, if the greenhouse effect is stronger than on Earth, KOI 5715.01 could conceivably be superhabitable.”

  12. And we will never know unless we get there. We can never get there. 🙁

    • Torbjörn Larsson | October 5, 2020 at 6:35 am | Reply

      So that do you think the paper is working with?

      It is faster and cheaper to do the research from here.

  13. Finally a mushroom planet.

  14. Octosquid Enormously | October 5, 2020 at 5:34 am | Reply

    So….it sounds like these planets will be dinsaur city. Higher gravity ratio, hotter, more humid, everything will be bigger and scary if life indeed does exist. But maybe it will be benelovent and open it’s arms to us as long as it doesn’t have the ability to research how s#!tty of a race we are. I feel no need to elaborate…just research that past 500 years of our existance. I am very greatful I exist in a piece of it where I can peacefully raise a family, but I have a locked emergency closet in case s#!t hits the fan..so to speak…and have trained in survival and combat. I am a very peaceful person. Never started a fight in my life. I did do some dispicable things but made sure no one was hurt by them. If I was the prime example of our species…we would be ok. But I think I am a weird case because I am not greedy. Maybe the majority of us our not. Maybe. But those that crave power are. And they are screwed up human beings. We are lead by crazy people…in every country. That is what will turn alien races off.

    • Torbjörn Larsson | October 5, 2020 at 6:37 am | Reply

      So never mind that global statistics say [e.g. Gapminder] that we live in the best of times – less povert, violence et cetera?

      Granted, Gates prognosis is that the current pandemic sets the poverty rates back 25 years. But still, the trend (for whatever reasons) is there!

  15. I hope to live up till the day comes where we could explore those planets.

  16. There is also metal.
    It takes a while for stars to manufacture and disperse the more complicated elements. This means a star that is too old, too old right now I mean, will have less an abundance of heavier elements in it’s solar system because that system formed before those elements became more common.

    • Elements up to iron are synthesized in stars as they age. Any elements above that in mass are from supernova nucleosynthesis. An older star may mean it is 5-6 billion years old and may last another couple of billion before expanding to red giant stage. So if it was in a neighborhood (as we were) with abundant supernova debris, it could still have sufficient heavier elements for life to form.

      There are a couple of projects underway to examine atmospheres for signs of elements consistent with life ( metabolism). Whether they can be deployed to examine atmospheres of planets 100+ light years away, I doubt with current technology.

  17. Torbjörn Larsson | October 5, 2020 at 6:24 am | Reply

    Pity summary: “In fact, only Kepler 1126 b (KOI 2162) and Kepler-69c (KOI 172.02) are statistically validated planets (Morton et al., 2016). The other objects are unconfirmed Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs), some of which may turn out to be astrophysical false positives. …
    Our point here is not to identify potential targets for followup observations but to illustrate that superhabitable worlds may already be among the planets that have been detected.”

  18. preston Barsdell | October 5, 2020 at 6:29 am | Reply

    Well to put you all at ease, not one of us living today will ever get the chance to distroy another plane, why because we won’t live that long. First we need to build a Enterprise space ship, second captain kirk, spock, and bone, won’t take you. So my alian earthlings forget that idea. We die with this earth

  19. We’ve done enough contribution in here! Now we’re looking for another planet because we’ve to keep spoil something. I’m wondering why can’t they go there quickly? At least creation that understand the value of this planet can live happily. This is mother earth’s wish. She can bless whoever is going now.

  20. Humans are never happy with what they have (earth). So happy for those planets that humans did not reach there. I hope these planets allow migration for our abused animal kingdom. We have driven them to extinction.

  21. “A slightly overall warmer temperature, a mean surface temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius (or about 8 degrees Fahrenheit) greater than Earth, together with the additional moisture, would be also better for life.”

    Woah, Nelly. Stop the presses.

    I thought all life on earth will die if we get 1.5°C warmer. That’s what the Church of Climatology preaches. Yet here, scientists say warmer, wetter climates are better for life.

    Gee, make up my mind for me, will ya?

    • You’re conflating life in general with life evolved to specific conditions meeting rapid environmental change.

  22. Charles Kibiro | October 5, 2020 at 7:39 am | Reply

    Of course.
    We always know that heaven is much much better.

  23. Larry L Edwards | October 5, 2020 at 7:45 am | Reply

    What? After completely screwing up our Earth, now these bastards have their sights on another planet.
    Imagine, Bill Gates showing up with a vaccine vial in hand trying to convince Aliens the benefit in using them.
    Aliens are smart enough to avoid Earthlings knowing they’d be dumbed down.

  24. Probably because humans don’t live there.

  25. For every “may be” in this article, the opposite is true, “may not be”. 24 identified, but only 1 had a possibility. This is iffy science put out to fit a narrative.

  26. There are way more factors required for life than 3 basic ones. The mathematical odds that life exists on this planet are astronomical.

    https://youtu.be/F9SEUtPEGAM

  27. this is the equivalent of standing on a hill in nevada… and looking at someone wearing a shirt on mt everest… and guessing what it’s made out of. you have no idea what is on a planet 100 light years away… you look at light refraction you look at radiation… and then guess. again like watching a cook dump two unmarked ingredients in a bowl… and guessing not just what he’s making but what it tastes like… frankly it’s stupid to speculate on this type of thing… focus on the stuff we can get to…

  28. paul holterhaus | October 5, 2020 at 8:27 am | Reply

    Get real People…….Nothing human like is EVER going to travel at the speed of light OR Live 100 years at that speed to get there…Paul

  29. So basically you are looking at these planets as they were in about 1900?

  30. Stefanya Poesy | October 5, 2020 at 8:40 am | Reply

    When people hear “suitable for life” most folks immediately go to “little green men”, i.e. complex, multi-cellular, even intelligent life.

    I suspect that “life” per se (single celled, procaryotic organisms on the order of bacteria) may be very common in the universe. More complex forms: eucaryotic microbes, multicellular forms, on to intelligence; are likely increasingly orders of magnitude more rare.

  31. So what’s all the hullabaloo about global warming then? If moisture and warmer temperatures are better for life, then why are we being told climate change is so evil? Btw this is a legit question, not trolling.

  32. So what?

  33. Theodore French | October 5, 2020 at 8:46 am | Reply

    This article is one example of the stupidity propagated by universities around the world. Instead of “higher education”, it’s simply “higher propaganda” by those that are ignorant to truth.

    As man continues to destroy his own habitat by his own suborned thinking (waywardness), he seeks places to escape to, only to destroy those places also. A wise man learns truth and adjusts his own behavior accordingly, thereby eliminating the destruction. You can’t run from your problems, you need to face and realistically resolve them.

  34. Wait,What,humm now we Are looking for a warmer planet , but I thought or have been told this particular one we already found was warming up and we were SOL ???

  35. Door ke dhol suhaney hain. Pehley wahan tak pahonch ke to dekhao!!!

  36. The sound of drum-beat is sweat to hear from distance. Could anyone reach in his life span? If he even travel at the speed of light?

  37. How about let’s take care of our planet before we go out and ruin other ones🤔

  38. I didn’t see anything in the article about orbit distance (did I miss it?). Afaik, any planet orbiting too close to a star (even one in the Goldilocks Zone of a dwarf star) would likely be tidally locked with the star which would render the planet completely inhospitable. Are these 24 planets in a more reasonable orbit and not tidally locked? Is that a criteria being used when considering superhabitable world’s?

  39. Its great to find planets in other systems but remember, if that system is 8 millon light years away, we are see the system as it was 8 millon years ago. We can not even tak care of ourselves here and now, where do we think we are going to go if we can not care for what we have.

  40. Life long and Prosper.

  41. “While the sun is the center of our solar system, it has a relatively short lifespan of less than 10 billion years.”

    How is 10 billion years is considered short given the entire universe is only 13.8 billion years old?

    • Scientists stop playing God. Even if you are atheists that’s fine, but your assumptions that earth isn’t the most habitable shows that you think too highly of your small brains. A million problems on earth, which you can’t find simple solutions, yet you believe with your minute knowledge that other planets are better than earth. Gush! Do thy homework on earth

  42. 100 light years

  43. Joseph Farnsworth | October 5, 2020 at 9:39 am | Reply

    Maybe could possibly tell you what you scientists take a ride there find out for sure then call me.

  44. Really? More gravity, more water, more atmosphere means more surface atmosphere pressure. What about rotation speed? Coriolis effect? Storms? Match this with star output requirements, planet magnetic shielding etc. There is quite a number of factors that need to be matched and satisfied for it to be hospitable for us. Similar life forms, yes, but hospitable to us… less likely

  45. While the Astrobiologists I commend for their craft, exploration, and desires to do so, I’ll refuse to take shots at them for their pursuits.

    I however have enjoyed immensely many,many beautiful years here on my home planet. My family, and their families as well our fellow patriots, and friends of like interests I know with certainty have as well.

    I’m hoping to continue doing so as I’m positive they are.

    I personally am not interested in trade-in. Sure, we’ve had some serious user transgressions, and intensive mental lapses along the way.

    I’m of the deeply held belief that this Earth is an incredibly solid value. It’s tough, resilient, and handles pretty darn well.

    Now what I’d prefer everyone to do is simply take better care of it. Let’s not spend so much time creating chemical compounds that are so counterproductive to our function, and our home’s natural foundation.

    Another simple idea may be that chemical compounds before they’re created should be of composition with no ill effects on our home before they’re created, and deployed.

    It’s also going to help that when you see a mess, stop and pick it up instead of walking by it, and posting later on as if you’re intelligent.

    I’d truly appreciate it. Y’all have a nice day, and get outside. It’s beautiful out here.

    CA

  46. A lot of effort and money into “how” and not much into “why”.
    Our Creator is quite Amazing.

  47. Already inhabited by more advanced lifeforms that are actually capable of interstellar travel. But don’t worry. As soon as we are capable,we will kill them off in the name of Jesus and take their land, too.

  48. One problem I have with the article is that the universe is less than 15 billion years old.

    Otherwise, it makes sense that there could be planets more stable and habitable the the current Earth. If you even glance at Google Earth, you will see the majority of our planet is not easily habitable by humans. If you watch David Attenborough’s latest Netflix, “A Life On Our Planet,” you may come to understand that we need to advance our society and technology to live together with nature because the human ecosystem is very fragile and limited on geological scales. The earth is covered with high mountains, dry deserts, deep oceans, and our presence here has been brief. On another world, say the land mass and fresh water were more evenly distributed, less volcanoes, less impacts from space, a stable magnetosphere, greater nutrients on the surface, calmer weather, and less toxins, then humans could bloom to unfathomable numbers. Is such a thing desirable? I am thinking of sciFi epics like “The Expanse” or book series like Asomov’s “Foundation.” We have to live right sized and in balance with the world we depend on, such that we satisfy our instincts for peaceful survival, procreation, innovation and exploration without sabotaging our future. A bigger house won’t reduce the mess. The mess will grow to fill it.

  49. So these scientists state that a planet 8 degrees warmer than earth and a little wetter would be even more optimal for life….Yet then these same scientists say that Earth’s climate will collapse if it gets 2 degrees warmer.Someonw is lying.

    • We’re warming this planet extremely rapidly, which is bad news for all the life that has adapted to existing conditions, including hundreds of millions of people who live in low-lying areas.

      Life will go on after the sixth great extinction event that human activities are causing, and maybe, for example, new super-dinosaurs will evolve in a million years in formerly temperate forests in Canada and Russia but it’s still an extinction event!

  50. Life on other planets i feel is possible. But our planet is amazing ! For another planet to be better then what we have here would simply be astonishing.
    And if it takes being a little warmer and wetter to make it better it looks like we are slowly heading that way. Then as the cycle goes for our planet after it warms up it will cool back down again.
    Nice article thanks.

  51. Jesus, here we go again | October 5, 2020 at 10:40 am | Reply

    Look what we did to Mars before we moved to Earth.

  52. To DJ, “What’s the hullabaloo about warming?” That this planet’s living beings developed in tandem, coordinating with the present temperatures. Living forms on another planet will have done the same. Doesn’t mean we wouldn’t freeze or roast to death, if it’s not our native planet. We’ve messed up ours to the point that a healthy adult could die from the heat in 6 hours in northern China 100 years from now.

  53. It is good to see that so many others agree that we need to look at ourselves and fix the problems that man have created on earth. Humanity does not deserve a fresh planet to f*@k up!

  54. Yeah, let’s go ruin more planets! Woohoo.

  55. So…global warming IS a good thing after all.

    Anyway, those other planets were not chosen for us for a reason. That’s why our ancestors chose this one for us to live on.

  56. If our scientists are able to reach any of these planets, by the time man is able to settle on any of them it will be covered with space junk. And if there is any iron ore, you can bet certain factions will set up pit mines to reap this natural product while piling the space junk in as many out of the ways places as they can?

  57. All Im thinking about is ME Andromeda.

  58. “There ain’t no life nowhere.”

  59. Are these the same researchers that say slightly warmer on earth is bad for life? So confusing

  60. It’s Webb, not Web.

  61. Screw the human race. Let us all die on Earth. Bunch of bitches running around with no one doing anything including myself, so I say let us all die and stop trying to reach another planet.

  62. Dennis Jaconetta | October 5, 2020 at 12:21 pm | Reply

    You scientist are living a pipe dream Life to evolve…impossible….the complexity is much to over whelming. Only a creator with an omniscience mind could create any form of life from inert materials..All evolution has at it’s disposal is time and chance…no hands, no desire to create no engineering mind to build..Time and chance won’t cut it. Man kind ,has the hands, the disire, the active mind and know all the basic building blocks of the simplest form of life.And yet has never ever produced life from non living materials.

  63. Better because no bad humans there

  64. Our planet has had a few super extinction events that have caused life to slow but also adapt during Ice Ages.
    A warmer planet or older planet would have a more formed outer system defense against giant meteors or a older planet would have a more stable core against Super Volcanic activity.

  65. All this is true only uf yoy believe Man came from the ape and apes evolved from little micro scopic bugs that crawled out of the ocean..
    Its all Bulls#!t what they call ((Evolution)) which its fske by the way.
    Its not Evolution thats what simple minds come up with. Evolution in Reality us nothing more than life ability to “adapt” or to go on.
    EVOLUTION IS REALLY ANIMALS US ADAPTING TOI CHANGE. THE WORLD EVOLVES BUT ANIMALS HUMANS ADAPT TI THIER SUROUNDINGS, LIFE PREVAILS WITHOUT WORL CATASTROPHIES LIKE LARGE SCALE METEOR STRIKES CAUSING ICE AGES ECT.
    Earth did not grow into a planet over time, Earth is not 4.5 Billion years old THATS HOGWASH…. Scientists are weak minded people with very low comprehension skills unable to see the big picture. its too much for thier small minds to comprehend.Rick
    EARTH is not even one Billion years old. it is Millions years old not Billion or billions.
    You need to understand that Man was never an Ape.
    Just because they find Remains of what they think Apes similar to man doesnt meen thats what we looked like 500 million years ago THATS BULLS#!T.
    Yes they for Apes similar to man but they also found human remains just like the structure of bones you have now. they are also 500 million years old.
    Those Ape like remains they find are in fact Not man as we know it.
    It is nothing more that a species of life like many ithers that went extinct like the dinasours the mamoths. just another form if life gone Extinct.
    MOST IMPORTANT DONT RESPOND TO ME STATING SCIENCE PROVES ME WRONG AND PROVES MAN EVOLVED FROM APE…ITS BULLS#!T HERES WHY!
    SCIENCE IS NOT IS NEVER FACT.
    SCIENCE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A SERIES OF STUDIES BY PEOPLE TO FORM A THEORY, THEN THEY TAKE THEORIES COMPILE THEM TO FORM A SINGLE CONCLUSION,,,IN OTHER WARDS ANKTHER THEORY… SCIENCE IS ALWAYS SUBJECT TO CHANGE BASED OF NEW THEORIES.

    NEVER NEVER EXCEOT SCIENCE AS PROOF BECAUSE PROOF CAN ONKY BE REAL IF ITS PROVEN AND UNCHANGABLE.
    As long as a subject like man from ape is theory and subject to change its just nit the case man is not evolved from ape….
    what they call Apeman somehere between whwt thye awwume is a chimp.to whaat man is today is a apeman…thats bulls#!t…
    Apeman is nothing more than a for of Mqn or a form if Ape that went Extinct. and scie tists are trying to fit the Apaeman into thier theory puzzle… lol
    ITS ALL HYPE…

  66. I can believe there are better planets out there till man gets on it and destroy them like they did earth

  67. Christopher Kreschollek | October 5, 2020 at 2:00 pm | Reply

    Stop whining about the planets. They don’t last forever, I’m not saying I use the toilet where I eat, but be realistic.

  68. Give me a break, a “better” planet than Earth? We have been here since the beginning, this is BETTER tban anything, get out of here!

  69. “Among the 24 top planet candidates none of them meet all the criteria for superhabitable planets, but one has four of the critical characteristics, making it possibly much more comfortable for life than our home planet.”

    What’s the name of the one planet ?!?

  70. It’s just another planet for us Humans to screw up

  71. One of the crucial items exclusive to earth is a large magnetic core and overabundance of radioactivity. What makes climate scientists less believable is discounting the still huge amount of energy Earth itself produces. Ferrophillic elements were drawn into the core, including radioactive ones. The Late Great Bombardment (meteor storms) salted the Earths crust with the heavier metals we find today (~3 billion bpe). Earth and Jupiter are the only planets known to generate more energy than they recieve from the Sun.

  72. According to this article a significantly warmer planet is a better planet.
    Duly noted.

  73. Debra A Billos | October 5, 2020 at 3:40 pm | Reply

    That’s hope the human race never gets that far as bad as we’re treating Mother Earth we would just ruin another planet we don’t deserve another planet I hope you never get that far all we will do is continue to destroy it and Destroy and destroy

  74. well this is only a presumption ita too early to say that this planet are habitable by just merely eye observation… how can you be sure about oxygen and soil ifplants will grow.

  75. The idea that the human race is decrepit and destructive and foolish is a very old, tired, lazyyz one-sided, biased, pessimistic, ugly, self-deprecating, and useless position to espouse. Humans have both negative, destructive, and positive, altruistic attributes. And the people saying that this is the best time ever in our history to be alive speak the truth. And people who say they don’t care are lying because if they REALLY didn’t care, they would not have cared to posted their comments.
    And no, we will probably never get there, but it still important to understand planetary biology and part of the human experience to explore and discover neq truths about the universe, the cosmos, life, and most of all, ourselves.
    And the people joking about the warmer planet vs. climate change on are great. Laughter is good medicine. Anyone who would make the the negative inference regarding this is either misinformed or disingenuous and dishonest, or all of the above.
    Peace!
    Jerry

    • Please pardon the typographical errors. I should have edited before posting, and I do not see an edit feature. These errors in no shape or form reflect any lack of competence or sincerity on my part.
      Thank you.

    • The irony of people using all sorts of space tech from satellites to wi fi to condemn space science is breathtaking.

  76. Better for life than earth until the humans get there…

  77. Science is a religion. No question about it.

    • No, religion is a religion. Science is a way that anyone, by following a few simple rules can understand the entire universe. It is truly democratic as anyone can do it and not even the most powerful person can deny truth of the results. It isn’t some dusty bronze age relic or set of rituals performed without serious expectation of a real world outcome and, above all science adheres to Occam’s Razor (Ironic since Occam was a monk).

  78. terrible grammar, spelling, and English. Most comments must speak esl! for such a dramatic possibility, the drivel factor bodes rather poorly. That is all I can draw from the commentary.

  79. Yeah right, and SOME may be made of green cheese. Absurd speculation is not science, it is science fiction.

  80. If we get rid of the blacks, we wont have to move to another planet for 100,000 years.

  81. Are they saying that the created of the universe didn’t know what he was doing when he placed human and animal life here on earth? Or do they think they have more wisdom then God?

  82. AKANKSHA UPADHYAY | October 5, 2020 at 8:14 pm | Reply

    I wish the money we are wasting for exploring planets for better life other than earth could be spend to conserve forests and animals on my mother Earth. No planet is better than my Earth💗

  83. Pashmam |:
    I don’t think a warmer and wetter place is better I don’t know about you but definitely I can’t live in a warmer place-_-

  84. HABEEBULLA ABDUL RASHEED | October 5, 2020 at 9:33 pm | Reply

    Human body created with our planet soil, which cannot sustain any other planet as we live in our planet , only sole has come from outer space ,which will return after some time spend with human body.

    The planets, which are scientist discover better than the earth is resting place of sole, only sole could stay such planets ,
    by the order of the super power.

  85. These scientists need to quit looking at planets that they have no hope of reaching and focus on the one that we live on and have taken for granted. Earth. These investigations about super inhabitable plants is just a bunch of dudes/dudettes guesstimating about unknown variables.

  86. The big unatheist | October 5, 2020 at 9:55 pm | Reply

    I do wonder if any of these planets have intelligent life. Intelligent in the sense that they can sustain themselves and none of them are idiot atheist liberals like we have to put up with on this planet.

    • Religion has had a long time to start doing that without any success. Do tell me when you think it will start to work.

  87. Did the author say 100 light years away.
    How many generations of travel would that be, since we have not achieved space travel, with great accomplishment.
    Food, water a few 100 years of travel, kind of puts a damper on that trip.

    • Signing on for a multi-generation voyage is signing your children into virtual slavery (in this context defined as no being able to chose your own life-path) since there isn’t room for dead weight (defined as anyone not involved in furthering the mission). Finding enough STEM candidates from each (small) generation to fill key positions could also be tricky.

  88. Teagan Stensrud | October 5, 2020 at 11:16 pm | Reply

    All of this looking to the skies, looking for another earth. It saddens me to my soul. Humans have almost destroyed this planet. Working on overpopulation to the point it can’t sustain itself. the continuation of searching for another earth should be halted. Until greed and the knowledge of self sustainable living can be made without creating pollution and destruction we will just ruin another world. We hardly know anything about our oceans and what’s in them besides fish water and salt… oh yeah all the garbage and pollution humans put in it. Before we move on and out maybe we should discover and explore here first. We need to abolish greed and power in order to move on as a species. But hay what do I know… i only live here too. Hopefully our species will grow up. Someday

    • Nothing you are saying will ever happen so what you are essentially saying is we should give up on science and live in mud huts until we die out as a species. We can’t travel the 4 LY to Proxima Centauri in a single lifetime let alone 100s and the light speed barrier will never be broken despite what sci fi would have us believe. People aren’t going to condemn their kids to essentially slavery in a tin can on a multi generation ship so IF we do reach any of these worlds we won’t be anything you or I recognise as human.

  89. “And worlds without number have I created; … and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten”

    There are a lot more than 24. All with family.

  90. Big Planet IS my favorite Jack Vance location, Ah to take a stern wheeler up the Vissel River to perform for the Great Panjandrum.

  91. I’m sure if human go these planets the will make it like earth … Warming

  92. Echoing other comments here. Absent any evidence for comparable civilisations to ours elsewhere in the universe (the Fermi Paradox, see Wiki: since we receive photons from the universe’s past, if these civilisations were/are plentiful where are they or their signals?) then either these civilisations are too recent for they or any of their signals to have travelled far, like us, or so unlikely to occur that we just haven’t spotted the very few that do exist, or they are non-existent. Looking at the issue slightly differently, if Intelligent life develops relatively smoothly on suitable Earth-like planets then it should be plentiful, so where are the signals? If it is the result of say half a dozen independent one in a million events then it likely has only occurred once, here on Earth (the combined odds being greater than the number of stars in the known universe). To establish which is the correct scenario we either need to see and decode an alien signal (SETI project), or work out, Decisively, the Complete process and significant events that led to Intelligent life on Earth. Knowing there are habitable planets out there, even ones with primitive life-forms, doesn’t answer the above question as to Intelligent life, it just makes it more tantalising. It does tell us however that if we could travel fast enough (unlikely, see Einstein, ignoring highly fanciful hyper-space/wormhole maths) or travel for long enough (multi-generational space-arks) then we could in a distant future, if we survive, colonise other star systems. So it does seem a good idea to sort our civilisation here on Earth out, since we are stuck with just Earth, for a very long time…hopefully!

    • I’ve nutted on this one a lot. One way intelligent life might be at least as brainy as us but not have science (apart from dolphins) is if the species never had a need of fire. No fire means no glass for lenses and no ceramics for mortar and pestle and no bunsen burner. No refined metals, no pyrotechnics so no rocketry and, if they live in a moist environment or wet skin like an amphibian that makes experimenting with electricity a bit tricky even if you did refine copper for wire and magnets for a dynamo.
      Fire is a lynchpin technology. Just a thought.

  93. Gimme a break.

  94. Timothy G. Richardson | October 6, 2020 at 6:10 am | Reply

    most people dont understand lightyears, and that it would take a ship over 100 years traveling at the speed of light 24/7 to get to one of these planets. That said, the article is pointless

  95. Sacred games anyone

  96. I used to work as clerical staff in a major univ.
    The insanity of the faculty and administration is clearly evident.

  97. Amazing how people think they are better than God, if there is a better suited planet for us, we would have been placed there.

  98. Trash science.

  99. Even if it is true the main question will be:” how do we get therw?”.

    Really there should be a way to move there otherwise know that such planets exist won’t help us to live better. :/

  100. It’snever enough. We can’t help it. Looking after the best exoplanet somewhere ,just to want it for humanity ,existance and thriving. Wow Bravo poor best exoplanet here we are coming for u. We did not destroy enough here so we will destroy you better cause we can do best worse ever. What a kind of thinking by shrinked mind and concractted brains empty heads. And we call our selves the evolled we became a better -10 millions time better. Terminology using the smoothest word for definision and covering our truth. We dont deserve a better planet. Unless we improve the earth .

  101. Ollivarius from jaffa | October 6, 2020 at 8:20 pm | Reply

    You have eyes and good eyes but don’t see. Forced to be blind by choosing it leave Universe alone its beautifull without our interfirence. Gain all knowleges ,scince and wisdome and put wit it morality so u can look and see using your wastted eyes ,to chnge.change our mind and than we will free our soul from that illusional system and than we will change inside us =the planet earth will get better for life in its all corners. First chage your self and it will change everything around Morality needed to be huaman the Adam kind we are

  102. Ollivarius jaffa palestine/israel | October 6, 2020 at 8:28 pm | Reply

    So manipulating using words like scince ,thrive and other classification just to make us fell better with our wrath on earth. And now we know how to destroy we had the exprience so it will be 100 thouthends worst. Poor next best exoplants. Just hide or run away farther maybe to a farther galaxy. Before scince(stuppiditty) get u. We r human and we gave over and realeased our soul. Letting matterial(money ,stoks and bursas to lead us. Imagine who r coming to thrive on u just rum or despear.

  103. Ollivarius jaffa palestine/israel | October 6, 2020 at 8:35 pm | Reply

    Stop penetratting the atmospher,stom using pure islands for milittar experience. Stop manufacturing for money. To bring good ,does”t need money it need morality let our aAdam to lead. Not talking about good he has nothing here. We r here we must take the kindness and start implamting goodness. And please leave exoplanets alone. The r doing well without us

  104. Ollivarius jaffa palestine/israel | October 6, 2020 at 10:25 pm | Reply

    Here was better on earth too. Same will happen to the best exo earthlike planet. And good for it its so far unrichible. So nasa keep bla bla. But its good an neccesarly to explore. Thats the science. Not to search for occupating and destroying.

  105. Who cares about the simulated earth like planets being simulated in the simulation?

  106. Eearth is closer to the sun than mars and mars is dry so maybe earth is not so good long term 😉

  107. They say the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and 5-8 billion years is ideal. They say these planets are perfect. They can say anything, but realize there is a deception in the works. All this is an attack on the bible. Don’t believe what happens next. Revelation 13 coming.

  108. I feel I’m really for inhabiting any exoplanets, that a way to get to can somehow be made possible. I feel I’m really for any other planet we can somehow get to” that have conditions good enough to support life, because I get it there are things like over population using up all earth’s resources, nuclear world war, or a huge asteroid that could destroy earth. Also even as good as this earth is, there have been times I have felt bored that this earth is the only planet we’ve all been able to experience. I feel I would like to also experience another world.

    • TPTP say we are over populated because there are more that 250 million people and more than that is hard for them to control. A person did a computer model of everyone on the planet in apartment buildings in the state of Delaware and all 7 1/2 billion would fit in with lots of room to spare. We could have 10 times our current population on earth and it would be just fine. Our weather is changing because our planetary system is traveling closer to the center of the Milky Way Galacie and since the TPTB knew that would happen they are trying to use to extort more money from us. God controls our weather, he did not build a planet that we could destroy. Yes TPTB do damage it by by their manufacturing and not containing their chemicals to make more money then blame it on us. There are systems to burn coal with no emissions of any kind but don’t use so they can tell we did it so we need to pay a tax.

  109. The Nazi NASA needs to knock off the BS. We have had many colonies on other planets for many years. We also now have both the Secret Navy and Secret Air Force combined into Space Force. Germany was on the Moon in the thirties. Do your own research and you will find the truth. India was on the moon and Mars thousands of years ago with their Amana’s involved in battles with Atlantis. One of their Amana’s was found in Afghanistan in a cave about 8 or 10 years ago then was taken to Dallas Texas. We will never see all of American troops leave Iraq completely because they have wormholes and stargates there that we control. Search my friends and have a great life.

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