'Life has chance on 100 nearby planets like Earth'

ALIEN life could exist on 100 habitable "super-Earths" in our galactic neighbourhood, it was claimed today. 

 Scientists say billions of potentially habitable planets may exist in the Milky Way.

And a study says around 100 worlds similar to Earth could exist relatively nearby — less than 30 light years from the Sun.

Astronomers have been surveying red dwarf stars in a bid to predict how many celestial bodies like our own could support life.

They account for 80 per cent of the Milky Way's 200 to 400 billion stars.

An incredible two in five are rocky like Earth and located in the "Goldilocks zone" — where liquid water essential for life can exist because it is not too hot and not too cold.

Boffins have already found nine super-Earths — planets with masses between one and ten times that of Earth. Two are in habitable zones of stars Gliese 581 and Gliese 667 C.        Read Full