The recent rapid pace of discovery of "candidate planets" -- distant worlds that seem suitable for life -- make scientists engaged in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) hopeful that they could find alien signals within the next 15 years.
On Sept. 12, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile announced the discovery of 16 new "super-Earths," planets orbiting distant stars that are smaller than gas giants, and most likely have rocky surfaces where life could gain traction. One of the newfound super-Earths, labeled HD 85512b, is the strongest candidate among them: It resides in its star's "habitable zone," where the temperature is just right to sustain liquid water -- the elixir of life as we know it.
The 16 new candidates join a list of 54 others discovered earlier this year by NASA's Kepler spacecraft.
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