Astronomers admit: We were wrong: 100 billion habitable Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone…
Astronomers’ estimates indicate that there could be more than 100 BILLION Earth-like worlds in the Milky Way that could support life. Do you think that’s a big number?
According to astronomers, there are approximately 500 billion galaxies in the known universe, which means there are about 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (5×1022) habitable planets. That is, of course, if there is only ONE universe.
In fact, within our Milky Way alone, experts now believe there are about 400 BILLION STARS, but this number may seem small, as some astrophysicists believe the stars in our galaxy could number in the TRILLION range. This means that the Milky Way alone could host more than 100 BILLION planets.
However, since astronomers cannot see our galaxy from the outside, they cannot know with certainty the number of planets the Milky Way is home to. They can only provide estimates.
To do this, experts calculate the mass of our galaxy and calculate how much of that mass is made up of stars. Based on these calculations, scientists believe that our galaxy is home to at least 400 billion stars, but as I mentioned above, this number could increase dramatically.
Additionally, if we take a look at what NASA says, we will find out how the space agency believes that there are at least 1,500 planets located within 50 light years of Earth. These conclusions are based on observations made over a six-year period by the PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) collaboration, founded in 1995.
The study concluded that there are many more Earth-sized planets than Jupiter-sized worlds.
In 2013, Dr Phil Yock, from the physics department at the University of Auckland, said: “Kepler finds Earth-sized planets that are quite close to their host stars, and astronomers estimate there are around 17 billion of those planets in the Milky Way.
These worlds are hotter than our planet, although some could have a comparable temperature (and therefore could be habitable) if they are orbiting a cold star called a red dwarf.
“Our proposal is to measure the number of Earth-mass planets orbiting stars at distances typically twice the Sun-Earth distance. Our planets will, therefore, be colder than Earth. By interpolating between the Kepler and MOA results, we should get a good estimate of the number of habitable Earth-like planets in the Milky Way. We predict a number on the order of 100 billion. Of course, it will be a long road from measuring this number to finding inhabited planets, but it will be a step along the way.”
The number seems to be increasing every year, which is great.
If we take a look at recent data provided by the Kepler space mission, we will find how astronomers believe that approximately 40 BILLION Earth-sized planets orbit habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarfs in the Via Galaxy alone. Dairy.
Since NASA’s Kepler launched in 2009, the space telescope has discovered a total of 4,034 potential alien planets, of which 2,335 are verified exoplanets. Interestingly, some astronomers say that around 11 billion planets may be orbiting Sun-like stars, while others believe this number is more like 100 billion.
In 2017, NASA made great progress in the search for alien planets. Their most notable discovery was the Trappist-1 solar system, home to SEVEN Earth-like planets that may even support extraterrestrial life. This particular solar system is very important.
In June 2017, NASA revealed a statement saying they had discovered ten new planets outside our solar system that are likely to be similar in size and temperature to Earth and may even have developed life on their surface.
