The following list includes some of the potentially habitable exoplanets discovered so far. It is mostly based on estimates of habitability by the Habitable Worlds Catalog (HWC), and data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive. The HWC is maintained by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.[1] There is also a speculative list being developed of superhabitable planets.
Surface planetary habitability is thought to require an orbit at the right distance from the host star for liquid surface water to be present, in addition to various geophysical and geodynamical aspects, atmospheric density, radiation type and intensity, and the host star's plasma environment.[2]
List
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This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
This is a list of confirmed exoplanets within the circumstellar habitable zone that are either under 10 Earth masses or smaller than 2.5 Earth radii, and thus have a chance of being rocky.[3][1] Note that inclusion on this list does not guarantee habitability, and in particular the larger planets are more unlikely to have a rocky composition.[4] Earth is included for both comparison and reference, while Venus and Mars are included for reference only.
Note that mass and radius values prefixed with "~" have not been measured, but are estimated from the mass-radius relationship.
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
See also: List of Kepler exoplanet candidates in the habitable zone
This is a list of notable exoplanets within the circumstellar habitable zone that are either under 10 Earth masses or smaller than 2.5 Earth radii and have not yet been confirmed. Earth is included for both comparison and reference, while Venus and Mars are included for reference only.
Some exoplanet candidates detected by radial velocity that were originally thought to be potentially habitable were later found to most likely be artifacts of stellar activity. These include Gliese 581 d & g,[67][68][69] Gliese 667 Ce & f,[14][70] Gliese 682 b & c,[51] Kapteyn b,[71][72] and Gliese 832 c.[73]
HD 85512 b was initially estimated to be potentially habitable,[74][75] but updated models for the boundaries of the habitable zone placed the planet interior to the HZ,[76][77] and it is now considered non-habitable.[1] Kepler-69c has gone through a similar process; though initially estimated to be potentially habitable,[78] it was quickly realized that the planet is more likely to be similar to Venus,[79] and is thus no longer considered habitable.[1] Several other planets, such as Gliese 180 b, also appear to be examples of planets once considered potentially habitable but later found to be interior to the habitable zone.[1]
Similarly, Tau Ceti e was thought to be likely habitable,[80] but with improved models of the circumstellar habitable zone, as of 2022 PHL does not consider it potentially habitable.[1][failed verification] Kepler-438b was also initially considered potentially habitable; however, it was later found to be a subject of powerful flares that can strip a planet of its atmosphere, so it is now considered non-habitable.[1]
K2-3d and K2-18b were originally considered potentially habitable, and the latter remains listed in the HEC,[1] but recent studies have shown them to be gaseous sub-Neptunes rather than being the Hycean planets and thus unlikely to be habitable.[81][82][83][84][85][86]
Kepler-1638b was thought to be a possibly habitable planet with a radius smaller than 2 R🜨 after the validation. However based on the later measurement of host star parallax by Gaia, the radius of the planet was revised upward to 3.226+0.201 −0.315R🜨, resulting in it being a ice giant like Neptune with poor prospect for habitability.[87][88]
KOI-1686.01 was also considered a potentially habitable exoplanet after its detection in 2011, until proven a false positive by NASA in 2015.[89] Several other KOIs, like Kepler-577b and Kepler-1649b, were considered potentially habitable prior to confirmation, but with new data are no longer considered habitable.
See also
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Astrobiology
Carbon planet
Comparative planetary science
Earth analog
Earth Similarity Index
Extraterrestrial atmosphere
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial liquid water
Galactic habitable zone
Goldilocks principle
Habitable zone - Habitable zone for complex life
Habitability of binary star systems
Habitability of orange dwarf systems
Habitability of natural satellites
Habitability of red dwarf systems
Habitability of yellow dwarf systems
Hypothetical types of biochemistry
List of multiplanetary systems
List of nearest stars
List of nearest terrestrial exoplanet candidates
List of potentially habitable moons
Lists of planets
Ocean world
Planetary habitability
Rare Earth hypothesis
Solar analog
Space colonization
Super-Earth
Superhabitable planet
Terrestrial planet
Timeline of astronomical maps, catalogs, and surveys
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^Dholakia, Shishir; Palethorpe, Larissa; Venner, Alexander; Mortier, Annelies; Wilson, Thomas G.; Huang, Chelsea X.; Rice, Ken; Van Eylen, Vincent; Nabbie, Emma (2024-05-21), "Gliese 12 b, A Temperate Earth-sized Planet at 12 Parsecs Discovered with TESS and CHEOPS", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 531 (1): 1276, arXiv:2405.13118, Bibcode:2024MNRAS.531.1276D, doi:10.1093/mnras/stae1152
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^Barclay, Thomas; Quintana, Elisa V; Adams, Fred C; Ciardi, David R; Huber, Daniel; Foreman-Mackey, Daniel; Montet, Benjamin T; Caldwell, Douglas (2015). "The Five Planets in the Kepler-296 Binary System All Orbit the Primary: A Statistical and Analytical Analysis". The Astrophysical Journal. 809 (1): 7. arXiv:1505.01845. Bibcode:2015ApJ...809....7B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/809/1/7. S2CID 37742564.
^Harakawa, Hiroki; et al. (2022). "A super-Earth orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone around the M4.5 dwarf Ross 508". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 74 (4): 904–922. arXiv:2205.11986. Bibcode:2022PASJ...74..904H. doi:10.1093/pasj/psac044.
^Kossakowski, D.; Kürster, M.; et al. (January 2023). "The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs, Wolf 1069 b: Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone of a nearby, very low-mass star". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 670: A84. arXiv:2301.02477. Bibcode:2023A&A...670A..84K. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202245322.
^Jeffers, S. V.; Dreizler, S.; Barnes, J. R.; Haswell, C. A.; Nelson, R. P.; Rodríguez, E.; López-González, M. J.; Morales, N.; Luque, R.; et al. (2020), "A multiple planet system of super-Earths orbiting the brightest red dwarf star GJ887", Science, 368 (6498): 1477–1481, arXiv:2006.16372, Bibcode:2020Sci...368.1477J, doi:10.1126/science.aaz0795, PMID 32587019, S2CID 220075207
^Mendez, Abel (29 January 2013). "A New Habitable Zone" (Press release). Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR Arecibo. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
^Barclay, Thomas; et al. (2013). "A super-Earth-sized planet orbiting in or near the habitable zone around Sun-like star". The Astrophysical Journal. 768 (2): 101. arXiv:1304.4941. Bibcode:2013ApJ...768..101B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/768/2/101. S2CID 51490784.
^Mendez, Abel (28 December 2012). "Two Nearby Habitable Worlds?" (Press release). Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR Arecibo. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
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