3 New Possibly Habitable Planets (Picture of the Day: 6/25/13)

Planets of Gliese 667C. Source

 

 

It seems like every other week we're finding more planets closer and closer to Earth-like habitability. This new discovery of several planets orbiting Gliese 667C, one star in a three star system, may be adding to our list of habitable worlds. As shown in the picture above, three of the newly discovered planets are in the habitable zone, Gliese 667C c, Gliese 667C f, and Gliese gg7C e. These new planets are super-Earth's, meaning that they are more massive than Earth itself, but they aren't too massive for life to exist, in my opinion (I am utterly unqualified to make a determination, but I can guess). In order, their masses are 3.8 Earths, 2.7 Earths, and 2.7 Earths. Life is a tenacious thing. If there's a place in the universe where it can live, it will live there.

What's even more exciting about this system is that it is only 22 light years away. Don't get me wrong, that's still too far away for humans to reach at this point in our technological development, but it is close enough that potential future missions to these super-Earths aren't inconceivable.

For more information, check out this article or this article.