Astronomers have discovered three planets in a nearby star system capable of providing water! The planets are known as Super-Earths, which is what scientists call planets that are bigger than earth but smaller than the giants or gasses like Neptune and Uranus.
The planets surround one out of three stars in a star system known as Gliese 667 in the Scorpius constellation. The thing scientists are most excited about is what the discovery means for astronomers looking for even more planets with water.
Three habitable planets around one star is record breaking. Before this discovery, astronomers believed the only way to find new habitable planets was to search around multiple stars for one tiny planet. This discovery proves otherwise.Thanks to the three new planets, scientists now know they can look around just one start and have the chance to find several planets that we could one day live on.
While these new planets are exciting, don’t pull your spaceship out of the garage just yet. Gliese 667 might be a nearby star system according to astronomers but it’s no walk in the park. The “nearby” system is actually about 209-trillion kilometers or 22 light years away. Also there is no absolute guarantee that any of the planets do have water until someone or something can get there and see it with their own lens or eyes, so we’ve got a long time before any of us starts calling another planet “home.”