New-found planets could support life

♦ Scientists have discovered two potentially habitable planets hailing them as “optimal targets for interstellar colonisation”.

The “super-earths” orbit a star just 12 light years from Earth. The worlds at the edges of Tau Ceti’s “habitable zone” belong to a solar system of four rocky planets.

Astronomers say the system might be a candidate for colonisation but there is evidence of a massive debris disc circling the star, increasing the chances of the planets being hit by asteroids and comets. The research was led by scientists at the University of Hertfordshire. Their findings will be published in the Astronomical Journal.