10 Planets With The HIGHEST Chance For Life
Let’s be honest, our own planet is great and all, but it can get pretty lonely here. So, can we
live on another planet or another space object as well? Let's explore some of those planets!
10. Gliese 581g
You’d be surprised at how optimistic scientists are at the possibility of there being life
beyond our own planet, however, due to the sheer incomprehensible size of the universe, they’re not
that optimistic about actually finding this life. Gliese 581g is one exoplanet that many pointed
towards for the potential of actually finding life outside of the earth, and this planet has
all the makings of a perfectly habitable planet. It has a rocky surface, much like the earth’s, and
it orbits its star just like the earth does and it has a similar distance, and presumably, age as the
earth as well. It’s about 2 to 3 times the size of the earth and is located about 20 light years away
from us. Scientists at the University of Puerto Rico picked this planet as a top candidate for not
just its habitability, but alien-life potential. The only problem is, its existence has never been
confirmed beyond the university, which means we still don’t know for sure whether it exists.
9. Kepler-22b
Much like our previous entry, the Kepler-22b is an exoplanet that orbits a star that’s very similar
in size and dimensions to the sun. However, what puts the Kepler-22b one step further
is the fact that its star is almost the exact same temperature as the sun,
and the distance of the Kepler-22b is also very similar to the earth’s distance from the sun.
It’s located in the Cygnus constellation which is located about 600 light years away from the sun
and the planet has an average surface temperature of about 22 degrees celsius,
which is a bit hotter than the earth’s average surface temperature of about 15 degrees celsius.
Kepler-22b is about 2.4 times the size of the earth, giving it the title of a “super earth”.
While there have been many “super earth’s” found, this is definitely one of the most promising ones.
8. Titan
So this is a slightly misleading entry since Titan isn’t actually a planet,
but it’s still a planet sized spherical space object, and we think that’s close enough. While
Saturn is a gas giant without any real chance of life surviving on its non-existent surface,
its largest moon, Titan, has piqued the interest of astronomers around the world. Titan is much
more like a planet than an actual moon, it has volcanoes that spew ice, an elaborate system of
rivers and lakes (filled with methane, though, so don’t expect yourself to be drinking out of it.
Still, the prospect for not just potential alien life, but also future human inhabitation on
Titan is immense, and it’s at the top of the list for future space exploration projects.
NASA has already made a landing on this satellite, making it the farthest from our planet humans have
ever made a landing. There are high hopes that NASA or some other space agency will
eventually plan a manned mission to this natural satellite, we’ll just have to wait and see.
7. Tau Ceti e
Back to the super earths, Tau Ceti e is a “super earth” that is about 4.3 times the size of our
own planet. It has features that are similar to many of super earths we’ve mentioned on this list,
such as a similar star to the sun and a similar distance to that star as the earth has with the
sun. This exoplanet is located just 11.9 light years away from the earth and is thought to
have quite a unique atmosphere. Scientists are predicting that this planet might have a mildly
hot surface temperature that would be ideal for life to thrive, or it can have a scorching hot
surface temperature, something more similar to Venus than the earth. If it turns out to be the
former, we might be able to closely examine this planet in the not-so-distant future.
6. Pluto
We know what you’re thinking, pluto isn’t a planet anymore. But it’s still a dwarf planet, which,
for the purpose of this video, is close enough. Pluto has a complicated history with humans,
after the beginning of the 21st century, pluto lost its planet status and was relegated to a
dwarf planet. However, as the New Horizons spacecraft has passed by pluto in recent
years and captured some incredible pictures, people and scientists suddenly have more hopes
for the planet’s habitability. While Pluto may be too cold for humans to ever survive there,
who knows what kind of aliens might be lurking around there. After all, there’s a diverse,
solid surface on the planet and it may also be geologically active. Pluto is quite young when
it comes to planets (pr dwarf planets), which means there may be more time for it to evolve.
5. Venus
Let’s get one thing straight, Venus is on fire, literally, it’s the hottest planet in our entire
solar system, so how on earth can Venus of all planets have the potential for life?
Well, it’s important to think about the history of these planets, as well as our own. There was a
time when even the earth was similar to Venus, but after a series of events, the earth’s temperature
slowly decreased enough to become habitable. Venus is a geologically active planet where
anything can happen, even life. There may have even been a time where Venus actually had life,
before its atmosphere got worse, preventing it from thriving.
It’s very difficult to know for sure since Venus’s thick atmosphere prevents us from
seeing it up close. Perhaps, as technology advances, there may come a day where we can
actually see what’s on the planet in our solar system that’s the most similar to the earth.
4. Europa
Once again, we would like to clarify that Europa is not an actual planet, but rather
a moon to the planet Jupiter. Jupiter has more moons than any other planet in our solar system
(a title previously held by Saturn before we ended up discovering more of Jupiter’s moons recently).
But Europa has a unique feature that sets it apart from other Jupiter moons,
and that’s a giant ocean located underneath the layer of rock and ice on the satellite’s crust.
There are also traces of oxygen in Europa’s atmosphere,
however, it’s far too thin for humans to actually breathe on it. Still, you should keep track of
all the amazing discoveries that will be made on Europa in the future, as it looks quite promising.
3. Teegarden's Star b
Out of all the super earths, Teegarden's Star b is the one that is the most similar
to the earth’s shape, although we don’t know much else about it. It’s approximately 1.06
times the size of the earth, and it’s only located about 11 light years away from us.
This exoplanet was discovered in June of 2019 by the Calar Alto Observatory,
and is located in the prime habitable zone of its star, which can lead to liquid water being formed
onto the planet’s surface and creating an earthlike environment. Being one of
the closest exoplanets to us, this may be one of the first exoplanets that humans would explore.
2. Kepler-186f
This is the last “super earth” we’re gonna talk about in this video,
we promise. The Kepler-186f planet is located about 490 light years away from our own planet,
and it bears one of the most striking resemblances to the earth that scientists have ever seen. It’s
only 10% bigger than the earth, it’s covered with rocks, and there allegedly is also some ocean on
this planet as well. We’ll likely never know more about this planet in our lifetimes because it’s
simply too far away from the earth, but never say never! Sometimes, the Kepler-186f is considered
to be the first “super earth” ever discovered, although dozens have been discovered since then.
1. Mars
Finally, the planet with the highest chance for life is Mars, the most explored planet in our
solar system. There have been rocks originating from Mars that were found on the earth in the
past, and these rocks contained some microbes that seemed to contain evidence of previous life
on Mars, and they were proudly displayed by NASA in a press conference in the 90s. But the main
idea about Mars isn’t even its potential life or previous, but rather the prospect of colonizing
this planet. The red planet has all eyes pointing towards it, with even people like Elon Musk
pouring billions of dollars into a mission to finally conquer and colonize Mars. The Starship
program is underway and it even has NASA involved, the day won’t be long before the first human
settlement on Mars is made, making it the first planet other than our own with permanent life.
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