Exoplanets are aplenty in the universe, according to scientists, and several of them might be able to support life.
Earth might not be the only one in the universe that can support life. There might be more; the trick is to find these exoplants, which is a tall order.
Astronomers have counted the stars in the cosmic background to be about 4,000 exoplanets that could host life. There are speculations if these exoplanets have lifeforms.
One kind of exoplanet that future terra-formers will prefer is a super habitable world that might be found in the cosmic haystack. Looking for this kind of exo-world might not be impossible and very probable.
A study in the journal Astrobiology wants to find them. The good news is there are 24 exo-worlds that show the possibility of being inhabited.
What man needs is a world like Earth that is abundant in moisture, with oceans and atmosphere to support life.
Dirk Schulze-Makuch from the Technical University Berlin calls a blue orb that is similar to the homeworld, that supported life from day one. Based on the study, this is where aliens may exist, if any can be found. Should one exo-world be found, then it should benefit the survival of humanity on it too, reported Extreme Tech.
Humans are only familiar with the ecosystem on the third planet from the sun, making it home to support all life.
Also read: Super-Earths Might Share More Similarities to Our Earth
But, what if this blue orb is not the only one with a living system. What if out there is a myriad of worlds that have a living system that is evolved differently. Seeing this planet Earth as an anomaly that supports life too. Whoever is sitting light-years away and observing this blue orb thinks centrically as we do about other possible ideas. But this orb is not the center as we know it.
How is any planet super habitable in the human-centric view?
There are characteristics crucial to making a planet super habitable. Earth has warm regions that have a plethora of diversity in flora and fauna. Next, it can be assumed that a warm world could host most biodiversity in it. To test out the theory, exo-worlds that are larger at 1.5 times will be considered, possessing a denser atmospheric cover and more space on the planetary surface to live on.
A thicker atmosphere and larger landmass will be different from the condition on homeworld Earth.
Just the sun in the solar system, this is crucial for the orbit of any exo-world. If the central star is a yellow dwarf, it will keep any world livable. Though this star will be boiling the new world in no time if it is 9-billion years. Planet Earth will suffer the same fate soon as well. If it is cosmic heads or tails, then go for any orange dwarf that will survive longer with life too.
Statistically, there exist 24 exo-worlds waiting to be verified as teeming with a chance of life called super habitable. One problem is time and distance from the homeworld that might be worked out generations in the future.
We've got a longshot at KOI 5715.01 which is only 3,000 light-years away with a mass of 1.8 times and orbiting an orange star. All the exoplanets are too far and none less than 100 light-years away, but one exo-world can be found to have life.
Related article: 25 Years After Finding the First Exoplanet, There Are Many but Not All Supported Life
