Certain planets outside our Solar System could have wind patterns that produce habitable climates.

Ludmila Carone at the University of Leuven in Belgium and her team used climate models to investigate atmospheric temperatures and wind patterns on planets with Earth-like atmospheres. The chosen planets closely orbit red-dwarf stars and always face their stars with the same side. The team found 3 possible climates for planets that have orbits of less than 12 days. Two of these climates could potentially host life, because of wind jets that stop the side of the planet exposed to the star getting too hot.

The findings could help to guide the selection of exoplanets for future study, the authors say.

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 453, 2412–2437 (2015)