Do you want to know what planets are habitable? Search the answer in the Habitable Exoplanet Catalog (HEC) website, the new online catalog of habitable planets.

The HEC, which was launched by astronomers early this week, is described as "an online database for scientists, educators, and the general public focused on habitable exoplanets discoveries."

According to Ian Sample, Guardian Science Correspondent, the internet database was made in order "to make sense of the ever-rising number of distant worlds that researchers have spotted with modern telescopes."

So far, the HEC has listed 15 planets and 30 moons as among those that could potentially support alien life.

In its homepage, the HEC states: "The catalog uses various habitability indices and classifications to identify, rank, and compare exoplanets, including their potential satellites, or exomoons." It also said that the information will be "updated as new results are available."

As of Monday evening the HEC database listed only two planets and 28 moons out of 707 confirmed exoplanets as habitable, and 14 planets and six moons out of 1,235 potential candidates, waiting for confirmation from NASA's Kepler space telescope, meet the criteria.

Other lists include 16 planets which were ranked by their similarity to our world according to a scale known as the Earth Similarity Index (ESI) which ranks planets based on their similarity to our world in terms of mass, radius, temperature and probability of having an atmosphere. At the top of the list is the class M mesoplanet KOI 736.01, followed by KOI 494.01, KOI 784.01, KOI 610.01, and KOI 947.01.

Other scales used by the developers of the database in their measurements are the habitable zone distance, or the planet's position in regards to the potential for liquid water formation, and the global primary habitability or whether or not surface temperatures are suitable for the growth of plants and phytoplankton.

The HEC also includes information on each planet's location, their probably masses, and the type and age of the star that they orbit.