June 25, 2013

Three Potentially Habitable Super-Earth Planets Found

The image above is an artist's impression of what it might look like to live on the exoplanet Gliese 667Cd, one of three super-Earths discovered in the habitable zone of the nearby star Gliese 667C.

bigthinkeditor

The image above is an artist’s impression of what it might look like to live on the exoplanet Gliese 667Cd, one of three super-Earths discovered in the habitable zone of the nearby star Gliese 667C. A total of six, and maybe even seven planets orbit this star, which is 22 light-years from Earth.

The three Earth-like contenders are believed to be habitable because liquid water could exist, and therefore they could potentially support alien life. The discovery was announced by the European Southern Observatory.

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

See more images of the planets of star Gliese 667C

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