Title: “Exciting Discovery: 85 New Planets Could Host Alien Life!”

In a major breakthrough, scientists have uncovered a whopping 85 potential planets that might just be suitable for alien life. Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), researchers made this groundbreaking discovery. These exoplanets, located outside our solar system, share sizes similar to Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune but boast a crucial difference – they are situated much farther from their host stars than most known exoplanets.

Why does this matter? Well, these planets are hanging out in the ‘habitable zone,’ a region where temperatures could support the formation of liquid water – a key ingredient for life as we know it.

Now, finding exoplanets is no easy feat. Telescopes can’t directly spot these planets, so astronomers get crafty. They search for dips in the brightness of stars, indicating something passing in front of them and momentarily dimming their glow. These dimming events, called transits, usually require three observations to figure out the orbit’s duration.

However, an international team led by Faith Hawthorn from the University of Warwick took a different approach. They delved into systems with only two observed transits. This meant longer intervals between brightness dips, hinting at a more distant orbit. The team initially sifted through 1.4 million stars using an algorithm and narrowed it down to 85 systems potentially hosting exoplanets with only two transits.

While these 85 celestial bodies still need confirmation as exoplanets, the researchers are optimistic that further observations will seal the deal. Among these, 60 are entirely new discoveries, adding extra excitement to the find.

Faith Hawthorn, a PhD researcher leading the study, shared, “It’s very exciting to find these planets, and to know that many of them may be in the right temperature zone to sustain life.” Co-author Professor Daniel Bayliss emphasized the collaborative effort, acknowledging researchers at various career stages, including an undergraduate student, Kaylen Smith Darnbrook, who played a role in data analysis during a summer project.

The search for alien life is currently at full throttle on multiple fronts. Last year, a mission set out to explore Jupiter’s icy moons, considered one of our best bets for life within our solar system. Intriguingly, a paper from November proposed that Mercury might have life hidden beneath its surface in salty glaciers.

Zooming out, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently provided strong evidence for potential life on an exoplanet named K2-18 b, located 120 light-years away. This distant world displayed hints of dimethyl sulphide in its atmosphere, a molecule on Earth associated with living organisms.

Back in 2019, a NASA-supported study even suggested that we could discover alien life on an exoplanet within the next few decades.

The continuous progress in technology and the collaborative spirit among global researchers are propelling the search for extraterrestrial life. The excitement is palpable, and the possibility of finding alien life feels closer than ever. The universe, it seems, is revealing its secrets one discovery at a time.