NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech
An artist's impression of Kepler-62f, a potential super-Earth in its star's habitable zone.
Observations using space-based and ground-based telescopes have indicated that a new class of objects dubbed super-Earths – worlds that are about two to 10 times our planet's mass and up to two times its radius – could be among the most common type of planets orbiting other stars.
That's because during the past few years, astronomers have found plenty of these super-sized rocky bodies orbiting different types of stars. Among these planetary systems, those around M-class stars, which are cooler and fainter than our sun, are particularly important. Because of the low surface temperatures of these stars, the regions around them where an Earth-like planet can maintain liquid water on its surface (also known as the Habitable Zone) are closer to them -- making such potentially habitable super-Earths in those regions more detectable.
Scientists also believe that these smaller stars are the most abundant in the sun's corner of the universe, implying super-Earths would be plentiful in our solar neighborhood, as well.
