Dozens of planets with conditions suitable for human life have been discovered in space: the “Goldilocks Zone”

Astronomers intrigued by push for further exploration of ‘exciting’ exoplanets

Scientists have discovered dozens of possible planets that could be cold enough to support life.

Sixty of the 85 potential exoplanets that are similar in size to Saturn are new discoveries, while 25 were discovered by independent research teams.

Astronomers have discovered 85 possible planets outside our solar system with temperatures that could be cool enough for life, Sky News reports.

These exoplanet candidates are similar in size to Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune and were discovered using data from NASA’s Transitioning Exoplanet Survey (TESS) satellite.

The TESS satellite allows scientists to observe dips in the brightness of stars, known as transits, caused by objects passing in front of them, Sky News notes.

Typically, to detect an exoplanet in this way, you need to see at least three transits to determine how long it takes them to orbit their star.

However, in the new study, the researchers looked at systems that transit only twice, resulting in planets with longer orbital periods, allowing exoplanets to be detected at lower temperatures.

Sixty of the 85 potential exoplanets are new discoveries, while 25 were discovered in TESS data by independent research teams.

Professor Daniel Bayliss, from the University of Warwick, said: “It’s very exciting to find these planets and know that many of them may be in the right temperature zone to support life.”

“In keeping with the collaborative spirit of the TESS mission, we have also made our findings public so that astronomers around the world can study these unique exoplanets in more detail. We hope this will spur further research into these exciting exoplanets,” said Professor Bayliss.

Researchers say some planets are far enough from their host stars that they may have the right temperature to support life.

This place is known as the “Goldilocks zone” or “habitable zone”, says Sky News.

At this stage, the discovered cosmic bodies still need to be confirmed as exoplanets, but researchers hope that this will be achieved through future observations.

The results of the international collaboration were published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).