A planet only 40 light-years away was discovered by NASA with the Spitzer Space Telescope. These orbit the star TRAPPIST-1. Of the seven planets in this system, as many as three meet the characteristics that life could exist on them, or that all the conditions for the formation of life are met.
"Habitable zone" is the term scientists use for the area where life is possible on planets and the conditions for liquid water, the existence of oxygen and methane, and temperatures in the zone where life can exist are met. It looks like we're one step closer to answering the question of whether we're alone in the universe.
For 2018, NASA announces an accelerated exploration of the system with the James Webb telescope with the aim of obtaining data on the chemical composition of the atmospheres on these planets outside our solar system.
