SUMMARY: Although more than 100 planetary systems have been discovered, astronomers have only found large, Jupiter-sized planets. The real prize will be to discover Earth-sized planets in orbits where liquid water could be present. A new simulation by a team from Open University "injected" Earth-sized planets into the habitable zone of the star systems already discovered. About half of the systems already found could have Earth-sized planets in stable orbits in the habitable zone. It will still be several years before there are instruments built that can detect them.

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