Two planets targeted in search for ET

A STAR system containing two potentially habitable Earth-like planets is being targeted by scientists searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

In the coming months, astronomers will turn an array of radio telescope dishes towards Kepler-62, a star smaller and dimmer than the Sun about 1,000 light years away in the 
constellation Lyra.

A pair of so-called “super-Earths” have been detected within the “habitable zone” of the star, the orbital region where temperatures are just warm enough to allow bodies of surface water such as oceans and lakes.

It is not known what the planets are made of, but they are believed to be rocky. One, Kepler-62f, is thought to have a radius about 1.4 times greater than the Earth’s. The other, Kepler-62e, is estimated to be 1.6 times larger.

The planets’ parent star is around two billion years older than the Sun, raising the possibility of intelligent life more advanced than it is on Earth.

Both will be priority targets in a new Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (Seti) programme focusing on habitable zone worlds. They were discovered by Nasa’s Kepler space telescope, which has so far detected almost 3,000 candidate planets outside the Solar System.