The planet to which ET probably phoned home

A international team of astronomers has discovered a rare Earth-sized exoplanet, called Wolf 1069 b, that’s one of the best targets to date in the search for extraterrestrial life, per a new peer-reviewed study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

🪐 Just how rare is it?... So far, humans have discovered and classified more than 5,300 different exoplanets. Of that total, less than 4% are rocky planets with a physical surface (<200), while the rest are gas giants like Neptune or Saturn.

And like a perfectly-crafted old fashioned, the recipe for life is an illusive and finicky cocktail. Within the subtotal of rocky planets that humans have discovered, just 80 are small enough for conditions that might allow life to survive.

We’re not done with our habitable-worlds funnel yet, either. Within those 80 planets exists an even smaller subsection of about a dozen planets, which orbit their respective star within its habitable zone.

• It’s on these 12 or so planets – which include the newly-discovered Wolf 1069 b – that life could potentially exist.

✋ Yes, but: In the grand scheme of things, planets with the potential for life aren’t very rare – humans just can’t see the vast majority of them. The Milky Way galaxy alone contains an estimated 300 million Earth-sized rocky exoplanets that orbit within the habitable zones of their respective stars.

👀 Looking ahead… Per the study’s authors, it’ll likely take a decade for current technology to become capable of analyzing Wolf 1069 b and other similar exoplanets for possible signs of extraterrestrial life.