Which planets are habitable

However, evidence suggests that the Sun used to be much dimmer. Venus may have once had oceans, but its proximity to the brightening Sun caused the liquid water to evaporate. Mars, which is too far from the Sun to be in the habitable zone, once had flowing liquid water. Our robotic space missions there have found evidence of ancient lakes, and minerals that could only have formed in water.

As evidenced by the possibility of a subsurface lake on Mars, there are ways a planetary body can be far outside the habitable zone and still harbor liquid water.

Is liquid water the only way a planet could support life? Also called KOI It takes days to orbit the star Kepler The study concludes that stars around half the temperature of our Sun cannot sustain Earth-like biospheres because they do not provide enough energy in the correct wavelength range. Pyle shows NASA has decided on October 30, to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2, planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.

This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Nov 12, , am EST. Another consideration for habitability is whether the planet could have the conditions necessary to support liquid water. This new research also considers how much light hits the planet from its star, which would impact the likelihood that the planet could support liquid water. By taking both Kepler and Gaia data into account, the results better reflect the diversity of stars, solar systems, and exoplanets in our galaxy.

The Kepler mission, which officially ceased collecting data in , has identified over 2, confirmed exoplanets, with several thousand more candidates waiting to be confirmed.