--- title: Is Anybody Out There? description: The universe teems with planets, and science has found hundreds of them. But the true prize — a warm, watery, Earth-like world — remains elusive canonical: https://time.com/archive/6597864/is-anybody-out-there-2/ author: Michael Lemonick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2010-11-08T05:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-25T03:09:45.792Z article:section: Science og:title: Is Anybody Out There? og:description: The universe teems with planets, and science has found hundreds of them. But the true prize — a warm, watery, Earth-like world — remains elusive og:url: https://time.com/archive/6597864/is-anybody-out-there-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Is Anybody Out There? twitter:description: The universe teems with planets, and science has found hundreds of them. But the true prize — a warm, watery, Earth-like world — remains elusive twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Science](/section/science/) # Is Anybody Out There? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=deb3ef7b-4056-4ff4-8abb-2fa0c57c58ef&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Friday (1x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Justin Worland, Senior Correspondent | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Senior leaders shaping the climate transition. An engaged audience of executives and decision-makers spanning operating companies, finance, policy, consulting, communications and media. ### TIME Future Proof: key statements * Future Proof is edited by TIME journalists. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=deb3ef7b-4056-4ff4-8abb-2fa0c57c58ef&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) by [Michael Lemonick](https://time.com/author/michael-d-lemonick/) Nov 8, 2010 5:00 AM UTC by [Michael Lemonick](https://time.com/author/michael-d-lemonick/) Nov 8, 2010 5:00 AM UTC In the currency of the cosmos, stars come cheap. There are hundreds of billions of them in our galaxy alone. The true prizes, as astronomers have always known, are planets. It took earthly observers millennia to discover the ones circling our own little sun. Whether any existed around other stars remained a mystery until 1995, when the first so-called exoplanets were found. The biggest question on people’s minds when the discovery of the new worlds was announced was whether they could harbor life. The answer: not even close. They were too big, too close to their stars or both. In the decade and a half since, with nearly 500 exoplanets under their belts, astronomers still haven’t found an Earth-size planet in a star’s habitable zone—also known as the Goldilocks region, where things are not too hot, not too cold, but just right for life. It looked as though they’d finally done it a few weeks ago with the announcement of a planet called Gliese 581g identified by a team of American astronomers. But as other scientists have studied the data, they’ve raised serious questions about whether the planet exists at all. [ (See TIME’s list of history’s greatest adventures and explorations.) ](https://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1932261%5F1932258,00.html) Disappointing as that has been, errors are to be expected in the planet-hunting game simply because the work is so hard. At multiple-light-year distances, even the largest planets cannot be seen with telescopes. Instead, scientists must use the back-and-forth gravitational wobbles, or radial velocity, a planet imposes on its parent star to infer its existence. Measure that movement and you can determine the planet’s mass. Another method, known as transiting, occurs when a planet passes in front of its star, blocking a tiny bit of the light the star emits. By measuring the dimming, astronomers can calculate how large the blocking object is. A final approach, gravitational microlensing, involves analyzing how light from one star is bent as it travels around a planet orbiting another star closer to Earth. The Kepler space telescope, which has been orbiting the sun since 2009, uses transiting to hunt for exoplanets, keeping its sensors fixed on about 100,000 sunlike stars. If it detects dimming in one of them, and if that dimming happens about once every year, it means the planet has an orbit like Earth’s—and we’re smack in the middle of the habitable zone. The Kepler scientists will make their first major reveal in February, announcing the planets they’ve found so far. The sheer number of stars out there makes some Earth-like worlds all but inevitable. The search will then be on for any Earth-like life upon them. [ Download TIME’s iPhone, BlackBerry and Android applications. ](https://app.time.com) [ See TIME’s Pictures of the Week. ](https://www.time.com/time/picturesoftheweek) [ See the Cartoons of the Week. ](https://www.time.com/time/cartoonsoftheweek) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6597864/is-anybody-out-there-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6597864/is-anybody-out-there-2/"},"headline":"Is Anybody Out There?","datePublished":"2010-11-08T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T03:09:45.792Z","description":"The universe teems with planets, and science has found hundreds of them. 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