New Worlds Next Door – exoplanets 2026 (B2+)

FOLLOW-UP LESSON | EXOPLANETS, 2026

NEW WORLDS NEXT DOOR

picture goes here

B2+ | 60-90 MIN | SCIENCE + DISCUSSION

A new world next door, in the 'Goldilocks zone' - ten light-years away, and maybe not empty.

THE NUMBERS GAME

Don't look anything up - just guess. We'll check your answers at the very end.

1. How many planets outside our solar system (exoplanets) have astronomers confirmed so far?

a) about 600 b) about 6,000 c) about 60,000

2. The nearest star to our Sun is Proxima Centauri. How far away is it?

a) 4 light-years b) 40 light-years c) 400 light-years

3. With today's fastest spacecraft, how long would it take to travel 10 light-years?

a) about 150 years b) about 1,500 years c) about 15,000 years

4. The first planet around a Sun-like star was discovered in...

a) 1955 b) 1975 c) 1995

picture goes here

WORDS TO STEAL

Match each term (1-5) to its meaning (a-e).

1. habitable zone

2. red dwarf

3. super-Earth

4. radial velocity

5. biosignature

a) a planet bigger and heavier than Earth, but smaller than Neptune

b) the 'wobble' method - spotting a planet from the tiny movement of its star

c) the distance from a star where liquid water could exist - the 'Goldilocks zone'

d) a small, cool, dim star - the most common kind in our galaxy

e) a chemical clue in an atmosphere that could point to life

Quick check: why do you think it's called the 'Goldilocks' zone? Do you know the fairy tale?

THE STORY BEHIND GJ 887 d

Last lesson you read one paragraph about this planet. Here's the fuller story - read it once, just for the general idea.

Ten point seven light-years from Earth sits GJ 887, the brightest red dwarf in our night sky - although it's still far too dim to see without a telescope. In 2020, astronomers found two planets there, orbiting their star every 9 and 22 days. They also noticed a third, mysterious signal repeating roughly every 50 days. Was it a planet? Or just the star itself, 'breathing' magnetically? Nobody could say.

So a team went back for more evidence. They collected over a hundred new measurements with two instruments in Chile, watching for the tiny wobble a planet causes as its gravity pulls on its star. Then they got lucky: the star grew more magnetically active, which finally revealed how fast it spins - about every 39 days. With that missing piece, they could separate the star's own noise from genuine planets.

picture goes here

...AND THE RESULT

The result, announced in March 2026: the 50-day signal is real. GJ 887 d is a super-Earth, at least six times heavier than our planet, orbiting in the habitable zone and getting about 80% of the energy Earth gets from the Sun. As a bonus, the data revealed a fourth planet nobody had suspected - GJ 887 e, an Earth-mass world orbiting every 4.4 days, far too hot for comfort.

That makes GJ 887 d the second-closest potentially habitable planet we know of, after Proxima Centauri b. But 'potentially habitable' is doing a lot of work in that sentence: Venus sits near our Sun's habitable zone too - and its surface is hot enough to melt lead.

picture goes here

FIX THE FALSE ONES

Three of these are true, three are false. Find the false ones - and correct them.

1. GJ 887 is the brightest star in our night sky.

2. The 50-day signal was first noticed in 2020, but couldn't be confirmed then.

3. The star becoming more active was bad luck for the astronomers.

4. GJ 887 d is at least six times the mass of Earth.

5. Astronomers found a total of three planets around GJ 887.

6. Being in the habitable zone doesn't guarantee a planet is habitable.

picture goes here

TALKING POINTS

• The astronomers spent years re-checking one signal before announcing anything. In your job, do people double-check things this carefully? Should they?

• 'Potentially habitable' - honest science, or clever marketing to win headlines and funding?

• If we could never travel there (15,000 years with today's spacecraft!), what is the point of studying it at all?

• Would you even want to know there was life 10 light-years away? Would it change your daily life?

picture goes here

THE COMMENTS SECTION

In March 2026, astronomers also published a 'top 45' - the best nearby rocky planets to search for life, filtered from 6,000+ known exoplanets. Here's the headline, and the comments beneath it. Read them: whose side are you on?

'Scientists name the 45 places we're most likely to find alien life'

StargazerSue: This is how science should work. 6,000 planets is too many to study properly - a shortlist means the big telescopes stop guessing and start looking. Best news of the year.

Taxpayer_Tim: Billions for telescopes to stare at planets we will never, ever visit. Meanwhile my local hospital can't fix its roof. Someone explain the priorities here.

CharlieTheDecorator: Here we go again. Even if there IS something living on one of these 45, it's just going to be green slime in a puddle. Wake me up when it says hello.

MORE FROM THE THREAD

Dr_Amara_K (to CharlieTheDecorator): Slime would be the biggest discovery in human history. It would mean life starts easily - and the universe is probably full of it.

QuietLurker99: Honest question - does anyone else hope we find nothing? If life is everywhere, then where is everybody? Maybe something happens to civilisations. Maybe it's safer not to look.

So - whose side are you on?

Which comment is closest to your own view? Which one would you most enjoy arguing with?

MORE TO DISCUSS

• Which comment is closest to your own view? Which one annoys you the most?

• Charlie is back! Is he being fair this time? Write (or say) a one-sentence reply to him.

• Dr Amara says finding 'slime' would be the biggest discovery in history. Do you agree - would ordinary people actually care?

• QuietLurker's worry is a real debate - the 'Fermi paradox': if the universe is full of life, why is it so quiet? What is your explanation for the silence?

A NEW VOICE: PRIYA

You'll hear Priya, an amateur astronomer, reacting to the news. Listen, then answer:

1. Is she more positive or more negative than Charlie was?

2. Which discovery excites her more - GJ 887 d, or the 'top 45' list?

3. What is her answer to people like Taxpayer_Tim?

picture goes here

PRIYA, WORD FOR WORD

Listen first with this hidden. Then read - the highlighted phrases are for the next task.

Oh, I was over the moon when I read about GJ 887 d. Ten light-years! That's round the corner, astronomically speaking. And I love that it wasn't some flashy new telescope - it was six years of patient, boring measurements. That's real science: slow and steady wins the race.

The top-45 list? Honestly, that one's even bigger, if you ask me. It's not a discovery, it's a to-do list. For the first time we can point at the sky and say: look there, and there, and there. Within twenty years, we might actually have an answer.

And when people moan about the cost - look, the whole thing is peanuts next to what we spend on, I don't know, football transfers. And the question we're trying to answer is the oldest one humans have ever asked: are we alone? Fair enough, it won't fix the roof of your hospital. But some things you do because you're a curious species, not because there's money in it.

SIX HANDY IDIOMS

You just heard these six. What does each mean - and when would you use it?

• over the moon - extremely happy (a lovely space idiom!)

• round the corner - very close, nearby

• slow and steady wins the race - patience beats speed (Aesop's tortoise and the hare)

• if you ask me - in my opinion

• peanuts - a very small amount of money

• fair enough - I accept your point; that's reasonable

picture goes here

HOW DID YOU DO?

The answers to our opening Numbers Game:

1. About 6,000 confirmed exoplanets, and counting.

2. Just 4 light-years - Proxima Centauri is our next-door neighbour.

3. About 15,000 years with today's fastest spacecraft. We are not visiting.

4. 1995 - the first planet around a Sun-like star (its discoverers won a Nobel Prize).

Which number surprised you the most?