NASA has recently discovered 7 new Earth-sized planets located outside of our solar system, in the "habitable zone" (a region with planets that could potentially sustain life). These planets were discovered by means of the Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared space telescope floating around in space since it was launched in 2003. This recent discovery is a new record for number of planets in the "habitable zone". Furthermore, all 7 planets are likely to have liquid water, an important condition to sustain life as we know it. These planets are located around 40 lightyears from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius. Following up on the Spitzer discovery, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has initiated the screening of 4/7 planets, including the 3 within the habitable zone. Questions I have are:
1. "If the planets are 40 lightyears away, how did the Spitzer Telescope manage to detect that system from said 40 lightyears?"
2. Could there be any form of life on any of the 7 planets?
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