NASA has discovered 5,005 planets outside the Milky Way galaxy. Earth remains the only planet that appears to have the conditions necessary for human life, so far.
Proxima Centauri b is the nearest known exoplanet to Earth and is located approximately four light-years away. Still, there are 8,709 exoplanet candidates awaiting confirmation within tens of thousands of light-years, 5.88 trillion miles is the length of a light-year.
“Scientists are searching the galaxy for planets similar to Earth, and signs of life,” NASA explains. “As we see on Earth, life can adapt to conditions that human beings would consider very harsh,” such as temperature, radiation, salinity, acidity, and aridity. It may be possible that life has started on other worlds and adapted to conditions quite alien to what we are used to, NASA says.
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There are planets everywhere we look: 5,000 and counting. Even with so many worlds discovered outside our solar system, Earth is still the only one we know of that’s just right for human life. Learn more: https://t.co/QI7ToqVhFl pic.twitter.com/GlNEklA2L1
— NASA Universe (@NASAUniverse) March 21, 2022
Kepler Space Telescope discovered there are more planets than stars in our galaxy. Scientists are working to learn all about the exoplanets’ “weirdness, their variety, and all the fascinating things they can tell us about how planets form and develop.”
In terms of whether a person will ever visit an exoplanet, NASA says not anytime soon. “At the moment, NASA is focused on the steps necessary to transport humans to Mars, our next-door neighbor,” NASA states.
However, NASA said that a robot similar to the Mars rovers could visit an exoplanet in the distant future.
