From Thousands to 45: A Strategic Catalog of Habitable-Zone Rocky Exoplanets for Targeted Biosignature Searches
To the point
Researchers led by Lisa Kaltenegger used Gaia data and the NASA Exoplanet Archive to narrow rocky planets in their stars’ habitable zones to about 45 and to map which planets and observation methods are best for hunting signs of life with the James Webb Space Telescope, including TRAPPIST-1, LHS 1140 b, and Proxima Centauri b, while considering eccentric orbits and guiding future missions and biosignature searches, as Stefanie Waldek notes.