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Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and capable of having liquid water. Using the ESO 3.6-m telescope, a team of Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists discovered a super-Earth about 5 times the mass of the Earth that orbits a red dwarf, already known to harbour a Neptune-mass planet. The astronomers have also strong evidence for the presence of a third planet with a mass about 8 Earth masses.

This exoplanet – as astronomers call planets around a star other than the Sun – is the smallest ever found up to now and it completes a full orbit in 13 days. It is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun. However, given that its host star, the red dwarf Gliese 581, is smaller and colder than the Sun – and thus less luminous – the planet nevertheless lies in the habitable zone, the region around a star where water could be liquid! The planet’s name is Gliese 581 c.

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A camera on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows this exquisite colour image of the Martian surface giving a tantalising glimpse into the Red Planet’s watery past.

Shots of the deep valley Candor Chasma show light coloured areas of rock where water could have flowed.

This image provided by Science shows light-toned layered rock in Becquerel Crater on Mars as photographed by the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter images show alternating layers of dark- and light-toned rock within which are a series of fractures, surrounded by what researchers call ‘halos’ of light-toned bedrock. These halos are believed to indicate where fluids, probably water, passed through the bedrock. The layers show cyclic changes in thickness, which may be due to annual climate cycles, a cyclic variability in the source of the sediment, or both. The blue areas are extensive fields of sand dunes.

An orbiting spacecraft has sent back new evidence for the presence of water on Mars. Scientists long have debated whether water flowed on the red planet, with evidence increasing in recent years. The presence of water would raise the possibility of at least primitive life forms existing there.