Astronomers Identify 20 Exoplanets That Are Best Candidates For Alien Life

Geo Beats 2016-08-04

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Over the years, scientists have located thousands of exoplanets, and, recently, a team took those discoveries a huge step further. The group, led by Stephen Kane of San Francisco State University, determined which of those celestial bodies are most like our own.

Over the years, scientists have located thousands of exoplanets, and, recently, a team took those discoveries a huge step further. 
The group, led by Stephen Kane of San Francisco State University, determined which of those celestial bodies are most like our own. 
They began narrowing the 4,000 or so candidates by selecting only those in their system’s habitable zone. 
The resulting 216 exoplanets were then further assessed based on size, surface, and proximity to their stars. 
At explorations end, the team had identified the 20 most likely to be similar to Earth, and thus holding the greatest possibility of supporting life.
As to the significance of the findings, Kane explained, "There are a lot of planetary candidates out there, and there is a limited amount of telescope time in which we can study them. This study is a really big milestone toward answering the key questions of how common is life in the universe and how common are planets like the Earth." 
Here is the list of those 20 candidates:
KOI NAME K00571.05 K00701.04 K01298.02 K01422.04 K02418.01K02626.01K03010.01K03138.01K03497.01K04036.01K04356.01K04742.01 K06343.01K06425.01K06676.01K07223.01K07235.01K07470.01K07554.01K07591.01

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