Chinese scientists have proposed a project to hunt for habitable Earth-like planets outside our solar system through a space telescope. This is will be the world’s first space mission specially designed to search for habitable planets in the universe. The proposed project will involve surveying the sky through a space-borne telescope to hunt for habitable planets about 32 light-years from Earth. The project, named Closeby Habitable Exoplanet Survey (CHES) would be the first space mission specially designed to search for habitable terrestrial planets around nearby Sun-like stars.
The exploration of habitable planets outside the solar system is one of the key frontiers of fundamental research in astronomy. The discovery of the nearby habitable worlds will be a great breakthrough for humankind, and will also help humans visit those Earth twins and expand our living space in the future.
According to a research professor from the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ji Jianghui, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered and confirmed so far, including around 50 Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. However, most of these are hundreds of light-years away from Earth.