The Most Earth-Like Worlds Found So Far
LHS 1140b sits less than 50 light-years away and may have oceans deep enough to swallow Mount Everest whole. Scientists still are not sure what kind of world it is. It could be an icy wasteland, or it could have a hidden liquid sea. TRAPPIST-1e is about 40 light-years from Earth. One side may face a permanent red sun, while the other stays locked in darkness. Proxima Centauri b is even closer, just 4.2 light-years away. A full year there lasts only eleven days, and scientists still do not know whether it has an atmosphere. The other worlds are just as strange. One orbits a star so dim that forests, if they exist, might glow copper in permanent evening light. Here are six Earth-like worlds scientists have found so far.
TRAPPIST‑1e
The planet was discovered in 2017 and is about 92 percent the size of Earth. If you stood on TRAPPIST‑1e, the sky would glow a dim red, lit by a star barely brighter than a heat lamp. Yet the ground beneath your feet would feel familiar, with solid rock underfoot and gravity that may feel somewhat Earth-like. The planet is about 69% Earth's mass, with temperatures that could hover in the range where liquid water can exist. But there’s a twist. NASA says the TRAPPIST-1 planets are “thought” to be tidally locked, “with one side always facing the star and one side always in darkness.” A human walking across the thin twilight band between the two would experience a world where sunrise never ends. Scientists still don’t know whether this twilight zone could host oceans, storms, or even life. The planet is shockingly close to its sun, just 2.9 percent of the distance between Earth and the sun. If Earth were this close to the sun, it would be a red-hot, glowing rock that could melt metal. This means the planet's year lasts only 6.1 days. It would be like celebrating a new year every week.
Kepler‑452b
Kepler‑452b, named after the space telescope that discovered it, is so similar to Earth that astronomers nicknamed it “Earth’s older cousin.” It was discovered in 2015, and its 384.8-day year is close enough to Earth’s to feel strangely familiar. Kepler-452b is no tiny Earth twin. It is about 60% wider than our planet, and while scientists have not directly measured its mass or composition, NASA’s catalog estimates it could be more than three times Earth's mass. If that estimate is right, walking there would feel far heavier than walking here, as if every step came with extra weight pulling you down. It is about 1,799 light-years away, and it will take a jet about 2 billion years to travel at 600 miles per hour. Its star is older, about the same temperature as our Sun, but slightly larger and brighter, suggesting the planet may be receiving more energy over time. Imagine standing on a world where the air may feel like the inside of a greenhouse at noon, and the oceans, if they still exist, could be slowly steaming away. If life ever evolved here, it may be facing its final chapter.
Kepler‑186f
This planet might be called the original Earth-like world, as it was discovered in 2014, before the others. NASA’s catalog estimates it at about 1.71 times Earth’s mass, though that figure should be treated as an estimate rather than proof of the planet’s density. Kepler‑186f made headlines because it was the first truly Earth‑sized planet found in the habitable zone of its star. If you visited, the sunlight would look as red as a sunset that never ends, and the forests, if they exist, would have a copper glow. Its star is cooler than the sun, so the planet receives less energy. Standing on its surface might feel like living in a world permanently stuck in early spring, cool, dim, and quiet. Scientists still don’t know whether it has an atmosphere thick enough to keep water from freezing solid. It takes about 129.9 days to go around its sun, which is less than half of how long it takes our Earth to make one revolution. Traveling at light speed, at 671 million miles per hour, it will still take you 580 years to get there.
Proxima Centauri b
Just 4.2 light‑years away, Proxima b is the nearest known Earth‑like planet ever found. If humanity ever builds an interstellar ship, this would be one of the first places scientists would want to study up close. To give more context, the Voyager spacecraft, the farthest human-made object from Earth, travels at 38,000 miles per hour and will still take 75,000 years to reach the planet. The size is almost an exact match, at just 2% larger than Earth, and it weighs just 5% more. Proxima Centauri b was discovered in 2016, and it takes only about 11.2 days to orbit its red dwarf star. That tight orbit does not automatically make the planet unlivable, because Proxima Centauri is much dimmer than the Sun and Proxima b still sits in the star’s habitable zone. But the orbit does raise serious habitability questions: Proxima Centauri is an active flare star, and its high-energy radiation could erode an Earth-like atmosphere and strip away protective ozone, allowing dangerous ultraviolet radiation to reach the surface. Even so, Proxima b is not confirmed to be a dead world. Some climate and UV-shielding studies suggest that, if the planet retains enough volatiles and has a dense protective atmosphere, liquid water and more survivable surface conditions could still be possible. For now, it remains a nearby mystery: either an irradiated, airless rock or the closest known world with a real chance of habitability.
LHS 1140b
The planet might be one of the best places to search for life because recent studies suggest it could be a water world, though a global ocean has not been confirmed. If those ocean models are right, the water could make the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of Earth's ocean, look like a small puddle. Its gravity is stronger than Earth's, so you would feel heavier with each step. The planet sits in its star’s habitable zone, where liquid water could exist under the right conditions, and its star is unusually calm, which is rare for red dwarfs. In terms of size, it is about 73% larger than Earth but has a mass more than five times Earth's. It was discovered in 2017 and completes one revolution around its Sun in only 24.7 days. The planet's sun is about 18% as massive as our sun and is at least 5 billion years old. Because LHS 1140 is a smaller, dimmer red dwarf, its habitable zone is much closer in, so LHS 1140 b can orbit close to its star and still be a temperate candidate. That means a year on LHS 1140b would pass almost every month. If you take a bullet train traveling 120 miles per hour, it will take about 273 million years to reach the planet.
TOI‑700 d
TOI-700 d is one of the few Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of a star that appears relatively calm instead of violently active. Its star is quiet, its orbit stable, and its size nearly identical to Earth's, just 7.3% larger. NASA’s catalog estimates it could be around 25% more massive than Earth. It was discovered in 2020 and takes about 37.4 days to go around its sun. It revolves around its Red Dwarf, a star that is both cooler and smaller than Earth's sun. Historically, scientists raised serious concerns about whether red dwarf planets could support life, but being close enough for liquid water is only one requirement; stellar radiation, atmospheric loss, and other factors can still make habitability uncertain. If it has oceans, they could be calm and long‑lasting. If it has continents, they might bask under a soft red glow. This is one of the most promising “gentle” Earth‑like worlds discovered so far. But even at light speed, it will still take you over 100 years to get to the planet. Computer models show that the planet does not have a typical day and night; on one side, it is almost always daylight, while on the other, it is almost always dark. One model shows an ocean-covered version of TOI-700 d with a carbon-dioxide-dominated atmosphere, similar to what scientists suspect surrounded Mars long ago, before it lost much of its atmosphere and water. Other models theorize that the planet is dry and cloudless. Scientists have tested more than 20 possible versions of TOI-700 d, but none have been confirmed.
The Next Earth May Already Be Out There
Future telescopes are being developed to search for biosignature gases such as oxygen and methane, and to detect possible habitability indicators, such as ocean glint, on distant worlds. If even one of them shows signs of life, it would become the most important discovery in human history. We may be decades away from the most powerful planned searches, and life detection is not guaranteed. The other challenge is traveling to these distant planets, as even at the speed of light, it would take years. Human curiosity will keep pushing toward those worlds, because one of them may finally answer whether Earth is alone.
