As astronomers use new technology to survey the heavens, it’s becoming abundantly clear that our galaxy is teeming with Earth-like planets. (click below to read more)
New data from NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler telescope suggests that there may be as many as 17 billion planets the size of Earth in the galaxy, dramatically increasing the odds that extraterrestrial life exists. Kepler recently discovered 461 possible new planets, bringing its total haul since its mission began, in 2009, to 2,740. Extrapolating from the tiny fraction of the sky that Kepler has surveyed, researchers arrived at their spectacular estimate that one in six stars of the 200 billion in the Milky Way has an Earth-sized planet. “If you look up on a starry night,” astronomer Francois Fressin tells the Associated Press, “each star you’re looking at—almost each one of them—has a planetary system.” In some of them, someone might be looking back.
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