Last Update: May 11, 2017
The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog (HEC) list a selection of all known exoplanets with any potential to support life, including some unconfirmed planets. The catalog tries to be as open as possible as not to exclude any object of interest. The selection can be narrowed down as desired using more conservative criteria based on different habitability metrics.
Ranked by the Earth Similarity Index (ESI)
 These are artistic representations of the top potentially habitable exoplanets ranked from best to worst by the Earth Similarity Index (ESI), a measure of Earth-likeness based on stellar flux and planet size. The closer the value to one the closer its size and stellar flux to terrestrial values. Planets with high ESI values are not necessarily more habitable as habitability depends of other unknown factors such as surface and atmospheric composition. Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune are shown for scale on the right. These are orbital analyses for all the planets in the catalog. It includes the dimensions of the habitable zone and better estimates of the equilibrium temperature for those planets in elliptical orbits. Each thumbnail links to the orbital diagram. Explanations and orbits for all known exoplanets are available in the PHL's Exoplanet Orbital Catalog.
These are simple orbital visualizations of the stellar systems of the planets in the catalog. They include to scale all planets in each stellar system including those hot (red), cold (blue), and potentially habitable (green). Stars and planets are not to scale with each other (size estimated when not known). Each thumbnail links to the stellar diagram. The habitable zone (shaded green area) corresponds to the optimistic case for super-Earths (~5 Earth masses). Location in the Night Sky Location in the night sky of all the known stellar systems with potentially habitable worlds (some systems have more than one planet). Click the image to enlarge. Image Credit: PHL @ UPR Arecibo, Jim Cornmell.
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