Finding a second Earth is ‘just a matter’ of time, NASA says

American space agency NASA has revealed in a report that a dwarf star just 40 light years from the Earth has at least seven apparently rocky planets with potential to harbour water and life.

The findings by NASA points to the fact that finding a second earth is ‘just a matter’ of time with reports revealing that the discovered planets are all about the size of Earth or smaller.

NASA revealed that much information at its headquarters in Washington, DC, and published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

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“Looking for life elsewhere, this system is probably our best bet as of today,” said Brice-Olivier Demory, professor at the University of Bern’s Centre for Space and Habitability and one of the authors of a paper on the planets around TRAPPIST-1, a small, ultracool star.

The TRAPPIST-1’s planets are similar to the inner solar system around Earth’s sun, Demory’s analysis of data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope showed.

The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system, NASA said.

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