What would the next alien Earth look like?

I need my space In the hunt for exoplanets, astronomers are looking for an Earth-like habitable world by Passant Rabie Updated: June 7, 2020 Originally Published: Jan. 22, 2020

There are alien worlds light years from Earth that share more than a few similarities with our own planet. Over the past 20 years, astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets orbiting stars other than our Sun. And of those thousands, a dozen or so are considered to be similar to our own — and have potentially habitable conditions.

We aren't packing our bags and headed towards those planets just yet, but scientists want to get to know those alien Earths better. To get a sense of what we might find, here is a who's who list of six alien planets that are most like Earth.

TRAPPIST-1 e

Year of discovery: 2017 Distance from Earth: 40 light years Mass: 0.62 Earths Orbital period: 6.1 days Type of star: Red dwarf Number of planets in its star system: 7

Kepler-442 b

Year of discovery: 2015 Distance from Earth: 1,115 light years Mass: 2.36 Earths Orbital period: 112 days Type of star: K-type star (orange dwarf) Number of planets in its star system: 1

GJ-357 d

Year of discovery: 2019 Distance from Earth: 31 light years Mass: 6.1 Earths Orbital period: 55.7 days Type of star: M-type dwarf Number of planets in its star system: 3

Wolf 1061c

Year of discovery: 2015 Distance from Earth: 13.9 light years Mass: 3.41 Earths Orbital period: 17.9 days Type of star: M-type Number of planets in its star system: 3

K2-72e

Year of discovery: 2016 Distance from Earth: 227 lightyears Mass: 2.21 Earths Orbital period: 24 days Type of star: M-type Number of planets in its star system: 4

Proxima Centauri b

Year of discovery: 2016 Distance from Earth: 4.24 lightyears Mass: 1.27 Earths Orbital period: 11.2 days Type of star: M-type Number of planets in its star system: 1