Astronomers Discover 85 Possible Planets Outside Our Solar System with temperatures that could be cold enough for life.

These exoplanet candidates are similar in size to Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune and were discovered using data from NASA’s Transitioning Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

TESS allows scientists to observe the “dips” in star brightness, known as transits, caused by objects passing in front of them.

Typically, at least three transits must be observed to discover an exoplanet in this way in order to determine how long they take to orbit their star.

However, in the new study, the researchers looked at systems that transit only twice, which leads to planets that have longer orbital periods, allowing the discovery of exoplanets with cooler temperatures. Sixty of the 85 possible exoplanets are new discoveries, while 25 have been identified in TESS data by independent research teams.

Professor Daniel Bayliss, of the University of Warwickstated: “It’s very exciting to find these planets and to know that many of them may be in the right temperature zone to support life.”

“Embodies the collaborative spirit of the TESS mission, we have also made our discoveries public so that astronomers around the world can study these unique exoplanets in more detail. We hope this will lead to further research into these fascinating exoplanets.”

Researchers say some of the planets are far enough from their host stars to have the right temperature. This is known as the ‘Goldilocks zone’ or ‘habitable zone’.

At this stage the bodies have yet to be confirmed as exoplanets, but the researchers hope that this will be achieved with future observations. The international collaboration was published in the journal Monthly Notices Of The Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).