Planets have to be about the size of Earth to be conducive for life

September 16th, 2009 Found: Firm place to stand outside solar systemWASHINGTON — Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there's a firm place to stand — if only it weren't so broiling hot. As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system.

September 13th, 2009 LONDON - There are thousands of habitable moons orbiting planets in other solar systems trillions of miles from our own, British scientists say. On the basis of mathematical calculations, scientists at the University College London have said that it should be possible to spot these moons using a space telescope launched by NASA.

September 12th, 2009 SYDNEY - In a new study, scientists have determined that giant gas planets like Jupiter, which orbit close to their parent star, could harbour moons the size of Earth. According to a report by ABC News, the study was led by graduate student Tim Cassidy from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, US.

August 28th, 2009 SYDNEY - The Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication Complex outside Canberra, Australia, has sent out more than 25,000 messages to Gliese 581d, the nearest Earth-like planet outside our solar system, which might host life. According to a report carried out in www.news.com.au, the messages have come from 195 countries including some from places such as the Vatican city, Antarctica and Kosovo.

August 7th, 2009 LONDON - The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found its first extrasolar planets, in the form of three alien worlds that had been previously discovered with ground-based telescopes. According to a report in New Scientist, the finds confirm that Kepler's instruments are sensitive enough to detect Earth-like planets around sun-like stars.

July 10th, 2009 SYDNEY - A German study has suggested that astronomers observing exoplanets around other stars may be underestimating their size because of active stars that add 'noise' to the observation of exoplanets using the transit method. The transit method detects exoplanets as they pass in front of their parent star, reducing the amount of light reaching telescopes on, and orbiting, Earth.

June 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, US, is partnering on a historic search for Earth-sized planets around other stars. STScI is the data archive center for NASA's Kepler mission, a spacecraft that is undertaking a survey for Earth-size planets in our region of the galaxy.

June 15th, 2009 LONDON - A new technique for detecting signs of life on distant planets by analyzing reflected light could soon lead astronomers to extra-terrestrial life. According to a report in the Telegraph, when scientists tested the method on Earth, they found unmistakably strong signs of life in the form of chemical "fingerprints".

June 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, a group of international scientists took the help of a lunar eclipse to take a snapshot of earth's chemical fingerprint, which could help to identify planets most similar to earth where life may be thriving. The team used some of the world's largest optical and infrared telescopes located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) to observe light reflected from the moon toward the earth during a lunar eclipse on August 16, 2008.

June 11th, 2009 Washington, June 11 (ANI: Astronomers, using the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma have confirmed an effective way to search the atmospheres of planets for signs of life, vastly improving our chances of finding alien life outside our solar system. The team from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) used the WHT and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) to gather information about the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere from sunlight that has passed through it.

May 18th, 2009 LONDON - The day is not far when it would be possible to see signs of life on planets far away from our own solar system-thanks to space telescopes that could soon be able to detect "biosignatures" in the light from planets orbiting other stars. Talking at an astrobiology meeting, scientists revealed that it could be possible to get clues of life on such exoplanets via tiny fraction of the parent star's light that interacts with the planet on its journey towards Earth.

May 7th, 2009 LONDON - A new analysis has suggested that the best bet that scientists have in finding life in the Universe may be around stars a little less massive than the sun, called 'orange dwarfs'. According to a report in New Scientist, these stars live much longer than sun-like stars, and have safer habitable zones - where liquid water can exist - than those of lighter red dwarf stars.

April 21st, 2009 Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planetHATFIELD, England — In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size.

April 20th, 2009 LONDON - A research into dying stars that once blazed as brightly as the Sun has revealed a glimpse of the 'end of the world', which awaits the Earth billions of years from now. According to a report in The Times, a team led by Jay Farihi, of the University of Leicester, UK, did the research.

April 5th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists are planning to build a giant telescope that will be powerful enough to identify habitable planets like Earth in distant solar systems. Astronomers claim the European Extremely Large Telescope, which will house a mirror the width of five double decker buses placed end to end, will be the first optical telescope capable of picking out the weak pinpricks of light that are reflected from planets as they orbit stars.