Way back in February, NASA and the European Southern Observatory announced that they had discovered seven(!) Earth-size planets orbiting a small star 40 light-years away.

Three of the planets are directly in the star’s habitable zone, meaning water could mostly likely exist on the surface of them.

It’s uncertain whether these planets could harbor life; their close proximity to the star — a red dwarf — may have left them incapable of forming atmosphere. Regardless, the discovery was another success in a continuing hopeful trend.

In recent years, scientists have overseen an explosion in the number of exoplanets — planets beyond our solar system — discovered throughout the galaxy. And we’re going to keep finding more, especially as astronomers turn to artificial intelligence to automate the search.

It seems wherever we look, we find exoplanets, many in the sweet spot known as the “habitable zone,” in which temperatures may be suitable to have liquid water. There’s even an exoplanet orbiting with a slight potential to be hospitable around the next nearest star. And in November, astronomers announced they discovered Ross 128 b, an exoplanet just 11 light-years away (we’re practically neighbors, in cosmic terms) that may even be a better candidate for finding life. Its star, also a red dwarf doesn’t seem to flare as much atmosphere-stripping radiation as some other stars in its class. Ross 128 b is also likely to be rocky, and is the right distance from its star to have a temperature suitable for liquid water.