A New Calculation Predicts Hundreds Of Billions Of Earth-Like Planets
Determining which planets are most hospitable to life is a crucial component of finding actual life outside of our solar system. Now, though, this mission may be getting a bit easier. Scientists have calculated that there may be hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which could support life.
Editor : David JACKMAN
Category : SCIENCE05 February 2015 / Thursday 16:17:50
A NEW study by planetary scientists have calculated that there could be hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life.
The new estimates are based on applying a 200 year-old idea to the thousands of exo-planets discovered by the Kepler space telescope, which found the standard star has about two Earth-like planets in orbit.
These two planets can be found in the so-called 'goldilocks zone', named for the correct distance from the star where liquid water, crucial for life, can exist.
Researchers from the Australian National University applied the 200 year-old Titius-Bode relation, which predicts a planet's existence based on their sequence orbiting around a sun.
It has already been used to predict the existence of planets in our own Solar System and by looking at a system where it was known to hold three or more planets, detected by the Kepler space telescope, the team worked out two planets exist in the goldilock zone of each star
