Natural History Wanderings

National Geographic  reports

A super-Earth about 111 light-years away is “the best candidate for habitability that we know right now,” astronomers say.

In a first for astronomers studying worlds beyond our solar system, data from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed water vapor in the atmosphere of an Earth-size planet. Although this exoplanet orbits a star that is smaller than our sun, it falls within what’s known as the star’s habitable zone, the range of orbital distances where it would be warm enough for liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface.

Read full story at  Water found on a potentially life-friendly alien planet