What are some Earth-like exoplanets?

I've lost count of the number of times I've read that the “first Earth-like exoplanet” has been discovered. With nearly 2000 exoplanets found to date, it is no wonder so many of them will resemble our planet in some way. But which exoplanets are similar enough to the Earth that they could actually be habitable? read more

For many exoplanets, we don’t have all these measurements, so some of them have to be estimated based on the best available information. The ESI ranges from 0 to 1 and anything with an ESI above 0.8 may be considered “Earth-like”. read more

A picture of Earth and artist's interpretations of several exoplanets that could be like our own. From left: artist's impressions of Kepler-22b, Kepler-69c, Kepler-452b, Kepler-62f and Kepler-186f. A picture of Earth is at far right. read more

Mars has been placed at 0.797, the most Earth-like planet in our system. Even more so exciting, there are four known exoplanets with a higher ESI than Mars, a planet humans are considering to inhabit within the next two decades. The famed Kepler 438b has an index of 0.88, the closest to Earth ever recorded (as of 14th January 2018). read more