A real astronomer weighs in on finding habitable planets in Civilization: Beyond Earth (interview)

Stephen Kane is in the business of finding planets that we could live on, after humanity goes to the stars. The assistant professor at the physics and astronomy department at San Francisco State University made news this spring when he and other scientists discovered Kepler-186f, the first Earth-sized planet that could theoretically support life.

Kane has made it his business to find exoplanets, or planets around distant stars that could support life in a “Habitable Zone.” Such zones are at a distance from a star that is similar to that of the Earth from the Sun, and planets within these zones might be able to support liquid water. More than 1,500 exoplanets have been identified so far, and 51 have orbits within the Habitable Zone.