Out of all the planets in the Universe,
Earth is clearly the best
for life, right?
Wrong.
Earth may be great,
but scientists
have discovered a few worlds
that could be even better for life.
Most of the contenders
on our superhabitable planet list
aren't the ones you could visit
anytime soon.
They are very far away.
The top spot is held by one
3,000 light-years away
from our Solar System.
KOI 5715.01 would appear
to definitely to satisfy
to to satisfy
the most basic requirement
for supporting life.
It exists in the Goldilocks zone of its star.
So conditions wouldn’t be too hot
or too cold for a key
life-supporting ingredient
to exist on its surface.
Liquid water.
But it would also check off
many boxes
to be considered superhabitable.
The planetary system
it belongs to
could be 5.5 billion years old,
which would make it around
one billion years
older than our own Solar System.
And the planet would almost
fit the size requirement.
When looking for superhabitable worlds,
scientists keep their eyes
peeled for planets
that have a mass up to
1.5 times of that of our planet.
And they should be about 10% larger too.
This size difference would
help the planet retain heat.
And if its average temperature was about
5 °C (8 °F) higher than Earth's,
this planet could have
even richer biodiversity.
Now, being almost double
the size of Earth, KOI 5715.01
might overshoot this condition a bit.
Besides, studies indicate
that this planet
is actually colder than Earth.
But there's still hope.
With the right atmospheric composition,
a strong greenhouse effect
could raise temperatures
to the desired level.
And as far as the superhabitable
worlds go,
we're just getting started.
When it comes to making this planet habitable
at this time of the year,
we fall back on what makes us and others feel better.
Shopping.
Holiday shopping may give you a rush, but it can also sustain
the corporate world's stranglehold on small businesses.
How do they do that?
When you shop online, like on Amazon or Walmart,
these companies use their platform roles to promote their products
over smaller businesses with competing products unfairly.
This practice is called self-preferencing
because it puts the company's interests ahead of anything or anyone else.
So how can you help?
Well, buy locally.
You know, small business owners account
for more than 64% of new jobs in the U.S.
So work for the antimonopoly.
Shift power away from major corporations
and help provide more inclusive opportunities
for your community.
Keeping each other fed and our communities thriving?
That's how we make a planet habitable.
Approximately 2,700 light-years away
is Kepler-69 c.
This super-Earth
could be around 7 billion years old.
This puts it perfectly in the estimated
5 to 8 billion-year-old
age range for superhabitable planets.
This range is based
on the 3.5 billion years
it took for complex
life to appear on Earth.
So the best chance for finding life
could be on a planet
a little older than us.
Only this exoplanet could be a little
too big to be superhabitable.
It has a mass
almost four times that of Earth.
A rocky planet
this big could have
a single colossal continent
that would have huge deserts
in its center.
But the coastline washed
by Kepler's ocean could be your
perfect spot to move to.
Our next super-Earth shares
a similar name, Kepler-1126 b
Except it would be located
ever so slightly closer to home.
This planet is about 2,073 light-years away
and belongs to a system
that is 7.5 billion years old.
It also orbits
a yellow dwarf star much like our own.
Only Kepler-1126 b is 2.5 times closer
to it’s star than Earth is to the Sun.
But that's no big deal.
Because the star Kepler-1126 b orbits
is cooler than ours.
So the habitable zone would exist in a range much closer
in proximity to it.
If you aren't feeling
this nearness to a scorching hot star,
there's another super-Earth on our list.
And it's at a reasonable distance
from home.
SPECULOOS 2c is located
only 106 light-years away.
Not that its proximity gives it
any kind of advantage.
It would still take you well over
200,000 years
to travel to this super-Earth.
And that's
if you moved at the speed of NASA's
Parker Solar Probe,
the fastest probe ever launched.
SPECULOOS 2c
does look promising, though.
It’s about 40% larger than Earth.
There's also
the potential for it being a rocky planet,
just like ours.
Despite the fact
that it also exists in a habitable zone,
its red dwarf star is still very small.
It’s only about 15% the size of our Sun.
So this planet orbits around its star
at a very close distance.
This close distance could mean
that SPECULOOS 2c
is tidally locked to its star.
This super-Earth takes 8.5 days
to make one full rotation on its axis,
as well as one orbit around its star.
That would leave one side of the planet
in constant daylight,
and the other in endless night.
All this means that life
could be possible in the terminator zone,
the thin strip of land
between the two sides.
We just need to get a better look to find
out for sure.
But with all these candidates
so far away, wouldn’t it be nicer
if the planets in our own
Solar System
were a little more habitable?
Well, that’s a story for another WHAT IF.