They were also able to extrapolate whether those super-Earths were likely to be orbiting in the habitable zone around the star.

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The astronomers who will use these telescopes are particularly interested in finding any Earth-like objects in the so-called habitable zone around a star, where temperatures permit water to exist in a liquid state.

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"What's particularly interesting is four new planets - less than twice the size of Earth - that are potentially in the habitable zone, the location around a star where it could potentially have liquid water to sustain life, " Dr Burke told BBC News.

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One problem is that this hospitable zone can shrink or expand over the lifetime of a star, as its energy fluctuates.

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Instead, gas and dust would simply have orbited around our star without moving inward, creating a so-called "dead zone" in the disk.

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The most basic of the indexes rates a world's suitability for life based on its place within a habitable zone, which is calculated by a planet's distance from its parent star, the star's luminosity and temperature.

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