Stars with Potential Earth-Like Planets:
Stars with Potential Earth-Like Planets
The NASA exoplanet archive lists over 6,000 confirmed exoplanets (as of 12/18/2025). A very small subset of these meet the following criteria suggesting they are "earth-like" — having a rocky composition, and able to support surface liquid water:
This is a 3D map of the stars with exoplanets meeting these three "conservative" criteria, from the "Habitable Worlds Catalog." There are a total of 29 such exoplanets. The stars are color coded by the Earth Similarity Index (ESI) of their exoplanet, a measure of "Earth-likeness" based on a set of planetary parameters (Schulze-Makuch, Mendez, Fairen, et al. "A two-tiered approach to assessing the habitability of exoplanets." Astrobiology, 11(10), 1041–1052, 2011). ESI can range from 0 to 1, where 1 is the most earth-like. Several stars have more than one exoplanet meeting the three criteria:
These stars with more than one exoplanet are color-coded using their exoplanet with the highest Earth Similarity Index (ESI). Stars within 138 light years of earth are not labeled unless they have exoplanets with Earth Similarity Index (ESI) 0.87 or greater. These stars can be further explored below in the 3D map "Stars With Potential Earth-Like Planets Within 138 Light Years." The base grid is parallel to the galactic plane, and lies 166 light years below the galactic plane. The yellow circle in the base grid is centered on the sun, and has a radius of 750 light years (the bitmap with the yellow circle is the relevant "zoomed-in" portion of a modified version of the European Space Agency (ESA) 2025 map of the Milky Way.
Click here for a table of the data used to generate this view.
Stars with Potential Earth-Like Planets Within 138 Light Years
The NASA exoplanet archive lists over 6,000 confirmed exoplanets (as of 12/18/2025). A very small subset of these meet the following criteria suggesting they are "earth-like" — having a rocky composition, and able to support surface liquid water:
This is a 3D map of the stars within 138 light years of earth, with exoplanets meeting these three criteria, from the "Habitable Worlds Catalog." There are a total of 29 exoplanets meeting the three criteria; 20 of the 29 exoplanets lie within 138 light years of earth. The stars are color coded by the Earth Similarity Index (ESI) of their exoplanet, a measure of "Earth-likeness" based on a set of planetary parameters (Schulze-Makuch, Mendez, Fairen, et al. "A two-tiered approach to assessing the habitability of exoplanets." Astrobiology, 11(10), 1041–1052, 2011). ESI can range from 0 to 1, where 1 is the most earth-like. Several stars have more than one exoplanet meeting the three criteria:
These stars with more than one exoplanet are color-coded using their exoplanet with the highest Earth Similarity Index (ESI). The upper grid is the actual galactic plane. The base grid is parallel to the galactic plane, and lies 73.6 light years below the galactic plane.
Click here for a table of the data used to generate this view.
Bright Stars, Near Stars, Solar Systems
Bright Stars in the Constellations
The Constellations and the Galactic, Supergalactic Planes
