An artist's illustration of a super-Earth with liquid water and white clouds.

Astronomers think the most likely place to find life in the galaxy is on super-Earths, like Kepler-69c, seen in this artist's rendering. (Image credit: NASA Ames/JPL-CalTech)

The Conversation contributed the article to Space.com's expert voices.

exoplanets are planets that are outside of the solar system In the summer of 2022, teams working on NASA's transiting exoplanet survey satellite found a few particularly interesting planets.

One planet is 30% larger than Earth and travels around its star in less than a day. The other may have a deep ocean and is 70% larger than the earth. The planets are larger than the Earth but smaller than ice giants.

I'm following the search for planets that might host life.

Scientists believe that Earth is the only place in the universe where life exists. It would make sense to look for life on Earth clones. Recent research shows that the best chance of finding life on another planet is likely to be on a super- Earth.

Life can be found outside the solar system in 25 years.

A size comparison of Earth, a larger super-Earth and Neptune.

A super-Earth is any rocky planet that is bigger than Earth and smaller than Neptune. (Image credit: Aldaron, CC BY-SA)

Common and easy to find

Cool dwarf stars are lower in mass than the sun and live a long time. The Sun is one of hundreds of cool dwarf stars and 40% of them are super-earths. Astronomers estimate that there are tens of billions of super-Earths in areas where liquid water can be found. Habitability is thought to be dependent on water.

Super-Earths are the most common type of exoplanet, accounting for about a third of the total. It is only 6 light-years away from Earth. Our solar system doesn't have a planet with a mass between Earth and Neptune, so it's unusual.

A diagram of planets passing in front of a star causing a dip in brightness

Most exoplanets are discovered by looking for how they dim the light coming from their parent stars, so bigger planets are easier to find. (Image credit: Nikola Smolenski, CC BY-SA)

Super-Earths are ideal targets in the search for life because they are easier to find than Earth-sized planets. Two methods are used to find exoplanets. One looks for the effect of a planet on a star while the other looks for a brief dimming of a star's light. It's easier to detect with a bigger planet.

Super-Earths are super habitable

The best of all possible worlds was argued by a German philosopher over 300 years ago. The question of why evil exists was supposed to be addressed by Leibniz, but modern Astrobiologists have instead asked what makes a planet hospitable to life. Earth is not the best place to live.

The climate has changed over the years due to Earth's tectonic activity and changes in the sun's brightness. Humans and other large animals have not been able to live on Earth for 4.5 billion years. The long-term habitability of Earth was a matter of chance according to simulations. Humans are fortunate to be alive.

There is a list of attributes that make a planet very favorable to life. Scientists think that larger planets are more likely to be geologically active. The largest planet in our solar system would be between 20% and 30% larger than the Earth. It would have oceans that are shallow enough for light to penetrate and an average temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. The atmosphere would be thicker than the Earth's and would act as an insulation blanket. The planet would have a strong magnetic field and be older than the Sun to give it more time to grow. According to scientists, these attributes will make a planet super warm.

Super-Earths have many of the attributes of a planet with a high degree of liquid water. Astronomers have discovered two dozen super-Earth exoplanets that are theoretically more hospitable than Earth.

There is a new addition to the inventory of planets. There could be billions of exoplanets that have been ejected from their star systems, and they are all in the same place. If a super-Earth is ejected from its star system and has a dense atmosphere and watery surface, it could last for tens of billions of years.

One of the newly discovered super-Earths, TOI-1452b, might be covered in a deep ocean and could be conducive to life.

One of the newly discovered super-Earths, TOI-1452b, might be covered in a deep ocean and could be conducive to life. (Image credit: Benoit Gougeon, Université de Montréal, CC BY-ND)

Detecting life on super-Earths

Astronomers will look for biosignatures that are visible in a planet's atmosphere to detect life on distant planets.

The telescope is not designed for exoplanet research because it was designed before the discovery of planets. In its first year of operations, it will target two potentially habitable super- Earths. Another set of super-Earths with massive oceans discovered in the past few years, as well as the planets discovered this summer, are also compelling.

The most likely places to find signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres will be with the next generation of giant, ground-based telescopes. By the end of the decade, these telescopes are going to collect data.

The ingredients for life are out there, but not inhabited. It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 Humans may be forced to conclude that the universe is a lonely place if there is no sign of life over the next few years.

The story has been changed to reflect the correct size of the telescope.

Under a Creative Commons license, this article is re-posted. The article is open in a new tab.

Become a part of the discussion by following all of the Expert Voices issues and debates on social media. The author's views do not represent those of the publisher.