Exoplanets could have better conditions for life

At least two giant planets, aged 20 million years old at most, orbit the Beta Pictoris star. A disk of dust and gas surrounding the star can be seen in the background.

This is an artist's interpretation of what a super-Earth GJ 357 d might look like. It lies within the livelihood of 31 light-years from Earth.

An artist's impression of a circumplanetary disk around PDS 70c, a gas giant exoplanet in a star system 370 light-years away.

This artist's illustration shows two gas giant exoplanets orbiting the young star PDS 70. These planets are still growing by gathering material from a surrounding disk. In the process, they have gravitationally carved out a large gap in the disk.

This is an artist's illustration of NGTS-4b, also known to astronomers as "The Forbidden Planet." It whips around its star every day in the Neptunian Desert, where no Neptune-sized planets are found.

An artist's illustration of HD 21749c, the first Earth-size planet by TESS, as well as its sibling, HD 21749b, a warm mini-Neptune.

A "hot Saturn" passes in front of its host star in this illustration. Astronomers who study stars used "starquakes" to characterize the star, which provided critical information about the planet.

Artist's concept of TESS against background of stars and orbiting planets in the Milky Way. Credit: ESA, Mr. Kornmesser (ESO), Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems Inc.), Britt Griswold (Maslow Media Group), NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center & Cornell University

A super-telescope made the first direct observation of an exoplanet using optical interferometry. This method reveals a complex exoplanetary atmosphere with clouds of iron and silicate swirling in a planet-wide storm. The technical presents unique possibilities for characterizing many of the exoplanets known today.

This image shows an artist's impression of the surface of Barnard's star, a cold Super-Earth discovered Barnard's orbiting star 6 light-years away.

This artist's illustration shows newly discovered exoplanet K2-288Bb, 226 light-years away and half the size of Neptune. It orbits the fainter M-type stars every 31.3 days.

This is an artist's impression of the exoplanet HAT-P-11b. The planet has an extended helium that is being blown away by the star, an orange dwarf star

An artist's illustration of what the super-Earth found around the orange-hued star HD 26965 (also known as 40 Eridani A) might look like. The recently discovered exoplanet is being compared to the fictional planet of Vulcan because Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry said the star was the ideal candidate to host Vulcan, Mr. Spock's home world.

The TRAPPIST-1 star, an ultra-cool dwarf, has seven Earth-size planets orbiting it.

For the first time, eight planets have been found orbiting another star, one of the most famous planets around a single star. The Kepler-90 system is in the Draco constellation, more than 2,500 light-years from Earth.

This artist's illustration shows exoplanet Ross 128b, with its red dwarf star in the background. The planet is only 11 light-years from our solar system. It is now the second-closest temperate planet to be detected, after Proxima b.

WASP-121b, 880 light-years away, is considered a hot Jupiter-like planet. It has a greater mass and radius than Jupiter, making it "puffier." If WASP-121b were any closer to its star, it would be ripped apart by the star's gravity.

NASA's Kepler space telescope team has identified 219 more planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and in the livable zone of their stars.

Welcome to the KELT-9 system. The host star is a hot, rotating A-type star that is about 2.5 times more massive and almost as fast as our sun. The hot star blasts its near planet KELT-9b with massive amounts of radiation, leading to a daylight temperature of 7800 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than most stars and only 2000 degrees cooler than the sun.

This artist's concept shows OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb, a planet orbiting an incredibly faint star 13,000 light-years away from us. It is an "iceball" planet with reaching temperatures minus-400 degrees Fahrenheit.

LHS 1140b is located in the liquid water habitable area surrounding its host star, a small, faint red star named LHS 1140. The planet weighs about 6.6 times the mass of Earth and is shown passing in front of LHS 1140. Depicted in blue is the atmosphere the planet may have retained.

An artist's concept image of the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f. Of the seven exoplanets discovered orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, this one may be the most suitable for life. It is similar in size to Earth, it is a little cooler than Earth's temperature, and it could be on the surface. The proximity of the star gives the sky a salmon hue, and the other planets are so close that they appear in the sky, much like our own moon.

Giant planets discovered, where one star hosts two planets and the other hosts the third. The system represents the smallest-separation binary in which both stars host planets that has been observed.

This artist's impression shows the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our solar system.

This artist's impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b.

An artist's rendering shows Earth-sized exoplanets TRAPPIST-1b and 1c in a rare double transit event as they pass in front of their ultracool red dwarf star.

Out of a new discovery of 104 exoplanets, astronomers found four similar in size to Earth that are orbiting a dwarf star. Two of them have the potential to support life. The craft depicted in this illustration is the NASA Kepler Space Telescope, which has helped confirm the existence of thousands of exoplanets.

This artist's impression shows a view of the triple-star system HD 131399 from close to the giant planet orbiting in the system. Located about 320 light-years from Earth, the planet is about 16 million years old, making it also known to date.

An artistic impression of the planet Kepler-1647b, which is almost identical to Jupiter in both size and mass. The planet is expected to be roughly similar in appearance. But it is much warmer: Kepler-1647b is in the habitable zone.

HD-106906b is a planet 11 times more massive than Jupiter. The planet is believed to have formed in the center of its solar system, before being sent flying to the edges of the region by a violent gravitational event.

Kepler-10b orbits at a distance more than 20 times mercury is to our own sun. Daytime temperatures exceed 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,500 degrees Fahrenheit), which is hotter than lava flows on Earth.

This Jupiter-like planet in the HD-188753 system, 149 light-years from Earth, has three suns. The main star is similar in mass to our own Sun. The system has been compared to Luke Skywalker's Tatooine home planet in "Star Wars."

Kepler-421b is a Uranus-sized transiting exoplanet with the longest known every year. The planet orbits an orange, K-type star that is cooler and dimmer than our Sun and is located about 1,000 light-years from Earth in the Lyra constellation.

Astronomers discovered two planets orbiting sun-like stars in a crowded stellar cluster approximately 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

This artist's design shows a hypothetical planet with two moons orbiting in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. The majority of the sun's closest neighbors are red dwarfs.

Kepler-186f was the first validated Earth-sized planet to be found orbiting a distant star in the habitable zone. This area has a range of water on the planet's surface.

Kepler-69c is a super-Earth-size planet similar to Venus. The planet is approximately 2,700 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

The Kepler-444 system was formed when the Milky Way was just 2 billion years old. The tightly packed system is so small that it is comparable to the size of Mercury and the largest in Venus, orbiting their sun in less than 10 days.

This artistic concept image compares Earth, left, with Kepler-452b, which is about 60% larger. Both planets orbit a G2-type star of about the same temperature; Kepler-452b is 6 billion years old – 1.5 billion years old than our sun.