Lisa Kaltenegger leads team finding 45 rocky habitable zone exoplanets
Scientists led by Professor Lisa Kaltenegger at Cornell University just found 45 rocky exoplanets that might be able to support life.
These planets sit in the habitable zone around their stars: basically, the sweet spot where liquid water could exist.
The discovery came after combing through data on more than 6,000 planets outside our solar system.
Team used Gaia and Exoplanet Archive
The team used info from ESA's Gaia mission and NASA's Exoplanet Archive to check how much energy each planet gets from its star, a key detail for keeping water around.
Standouts like TRAPPIST-1e and TOI-715b are especially Earth-like and worth a closer look.
Proxima Centauri b and LHS 1140 b are also top picks for future study with powerful telescopes like James Webb.
Being in the habitable zone isn't a guarantee of life, but it's an exciting place to start searching!