Earth-Like Planets & Moons List in the Milky Way Galaxy

Many people are now starting to wonder about how many Earthlike Planets and Moons have been discovered so far in our Solar System and how many Earthlike planets and Moons have been discovered beyond our Solar System. It excites our imagination to dream about how many Earthlike Planets and Moons are actually in our Milky Way Galaxy!

As we begin to contemplate the truth about Earthlike planets and moons, we often ask ourselves:

How many Earthlike planets and moons have already been found or discovered?
Technically, only 1 planet is known to be truly Earthlike and that planet is Earth! While 6 planets have been found that are similar in size to Earth and are in the habitable zone of their stars, we still do not have enough data to know for sure if these planets are truly Earthlike yet.

Are Earthlike Planets common in the Milky Way Galaxy?
Yes! It is estimated that there are 40 Billion Earthlike Planets in our Milky Way Galaxy!

Are these Earthlike planets habitable for humans?
Honestly, we simply do not know yet. We do not have enough data on each of these planets to know for sure. However, we now have several promising Earthlike candidate planets listed on this page.

What are the names of these Earthlike Planets?
While we do not have any official names yet for any Earthlike planets, the Earthlike planet candidates listed on this page do have names already. These Earthlike planet candidates are Teegarden b, Trappist-1 f, Trappist-1 e, Trappist-1 g, and Teegarden c.

What is the nearest or closest habitable Earthlike planet to Earth?
The closest Earthlike candidate planets to Teegarden b and Teegarden c, located 12.5140 light years from Earth. Current travel time by chemical rocket would 162,384 years. We do not yet know if Teegarden b or Teegarden c are habitable or not.

Naturally, our ultimate goal as a human species is to discover another planet that is like Planet Earth!

Milky Way Galaxy Atlas has devised a system for determining how "Earthlike" a planet might be given the current data about the planet. The details of the Earthlike Planet Criteria can be found on our Legend page.

A planet may be classified under 6 different Earthlike categories:

1. The Planet is "Not Similar to Earth"
2. The Planet is "Earth Related"
3. The Planet is "Earth Similar"
4. The Planet is "Earth Like"
5. The Planet is an "Earth Analog"
6. The Planet is an "Earth Twin" (Planet Earth is in the his Category obviously)

The following list below of Earthlike planets are the planets that are closest to being Earth-like given the amount of data that is currently available. Please scroll down further for the list of Earthlike Planet Candidates. It should not be assumed that a planet is in any way habitable like Earth just because it appears in this list. There is much more data that must be gathered about these planets to determine how truly "Earth-like" they may be.

To appear on this list, a planet must be in the potential liquid water habitable zone, be Terran size and mass, and have a temperature that is cold or warm.

There are currently 6 planets that appear on this list, including planet Earth of course. However, only 1 of these planets are currently regarded as truly "Earth-like," our Earth. The earth-like planet candidates on this list are the closest planets that we have discovered that have some similarities to Earth.

For a Planet to be considered truly "Earth-Like," it must meet 23 criteria.

These criteria in no way indicate that other planets that are not "Earth-like", are not habitable. A planet that is not "Earth-like" may still be habitable. However, these criteria simply provide us with a framework to determine how closely a planet may resemble Earth, and thus whether life as we know it could possibly inhabit such a planet. Each criteria also has a color associated with it. These colors are defined in the Galaxy Legend, and give a general idea of how a planet ranks within the framework of the Earth Similarity Class. Any criteria that is "green," means that the planet meets that criteria for being an "Earth-like" planet.

The 23 Criteria are as follows:

Whether a planet is in the potential habitable zone of their star (the area where liquid water could exist), If the planet is tidally locked (one side always faces its star), Axial tilt, Orbit Eccentricity (How circular the orbit is), Size, Mass, Diameter, Density, Gravity, Plate Tectonics, Atmospheric Composition, Atmospheic Pressure, Ozone Layer, Magnetic Field, Parent Star Solar Flares Intensity, Average Temperature, Greenhouse Effect, Liquid Water, Micro-Organisms, Plants, Animals, Intelligent beings, and a Stabilizing Moon.

At this point, some of these planetary properties must still be refined and more accurately measured, and are subject to change given future data.