Life in the Universe

Life on Exoplanets

Has any planet yet been found in a habitable zone around a star?

Habitable zones—where the heat from a star would keep water on a planet’s surface liquid—exist around most of the stars where exoplanets have been discovered so far. Although almost none of these exoplanets are orbiting in those stars’ habitable zones, there are a few exceptions. Of the thousands of exoplanets and exoplanet candidates discovered so far, only about sixty of them orbit in a habitable zone.