Astronomers from the University of Washington’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory say they’ve developed a formula to figure out which planets outside our solar system are most likely to contain life.
A lesser person might call that formula something catchy like the Alien Index, but these professionals call it the “Habitability Index for Transiting Planets,” and it will soon be published in the Astrophysical Journal .
“Basically, we’ve devised a way to take all the observational data that are available and develop a prioritization scheme,” said co-author Rory Barnes, “so that as we move into a time when there are hundreds of [planets to consider] available, we might be able to say, ‘OK, that’s the one we want to start with.’ ”
The Alien Index (we’re still hanging onto that phrase) takes the most important details of a planet that make it suitable for life, and turns it into quantifiable data. Those figures are then plugged into the formula, to see which planets are the best candidates.
The most important elements of a planet that could have the next K-PAX on it are:
n order to be a candidate for life, a planet has to be in The Goldilocks Zone, an area that’s just the right distance from its sun to have liquid water on its surface. Water is considered one of the most important indicators of whether a planet can have life. That’s why NASA’s recent news of water on Mars made such a splash.
For a while, being in the Goldilocks Zone was all we had to go on. But as scientists identify more and more planets, the number of planets in the Goldilocks Zone became blissfully unmanageable, and these new factors had to be taken into account to whittle down the number of places to look.
Here’s what to look for in a potentially alien-run planet:
1. Rocky Is Good
A good planet for life has to be rocky

for the full details visit...
http://sweetnoisenaija.com/astronomers-release-the-keys-to-finding-alien-life/

Too Many alien talk on this section . I hope I won't start dreaming of alien .

Electronzeez:
Too Many alien talk on this section . I hope I won't start dreaming of alien .

lol....maybe you should,cos we're not alone "WINTER IS COMING SOON"