In total, 114 new planets have been discovered by a panel of international researchers which includes a "super-Earth" and 60 others planets that could support life.
The researchers came to conclusion after collating the data from 20-year long survey. They analyzed around 1,624 stars and found out that 60 planets are potential planets.
Researcher Mikko Tuomi said, "We were very conservative in this paper about what counts as an exoplanet candidate and what does not. And even with our stringent criteria, we found over 100 new likely planet candidates.”
One of the planets discovered, GJ411b, has similarities uncanny to our planet. It is a hot, rocky-surfaced “super-Earth” that was found orbiting GJ411 star. The planet is fourth nearest star to the sun.
The planet takes little less than 10 days to orbit around its star. GJ411b's discovery could mean that all the stars near the sun have planets orbiting them, which means that they too might be capable of supporting life.
Thanks to the radial velocity method, the scientists were able to locate the planets. The stars tend to wobble in space due to planets orbiting around it. Astronomers are able to measure this wobble to find where a planet might be hiding.
This has been the largest-ever compilation of exoplanet detecting observations till date.
Image Credit: futurism.com