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A team of “planet hunters” has announced the discovery of the first planet with the potential to harbour life outside our solar system. Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz and the Carnegie Institution of Washington said Wednesday the planet has three times the mass of Earth and orbits its star at a distance that places it smack in the middle of the star's “habitable zone” — the vital zone where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. If confirmed, it would be the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first strong case for a potentially habitable one, NASA and the U.S.-based National Science Foundation said in a statement. Both organizations sponsored the research. “Our findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet,” said Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz who, with Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution, led the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey. “The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common.” http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/First+potentially+habitable+planet+fou… added by: unimatrix0