Billions and Billions of Planets

[One-23 Profile]

It's a no brainer really .

Billions and Billions of Planets


A new analysis of data from NASA's Kepler mission finds evidence for at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

January 03, 2013

Look up at the night sky and you'll see stars, sure. But the sky is also filled with planets -- billions and billions of them at least.

That's the conclusion of a new study by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which provides yet more evidence that planetary systems are the cosmic norm. The team made their estimate while analyzing planets orbiting a star called Kepler-32 -- planets that are representative, they say, of the vast majority of planets in our galaxy and thus serve as a perfect case study for understanding how most of these worlds form.

"There are at least 100 billion planets in the galaxy, just our galaxy," says John Johnson, assistant professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech and coauthor of the study, which was recently accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. "That's mind-boggling."

"It's a staggering number, if you think about it," adds Jonathan Swift, a postdoctoral student at Caltech and lead author of the paper. "Basically, there's one of these planets per star."

Full article and source http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-002

[Noentry Profile]

Great.
Now when do I get to meet ET?

[Ufosarus Profile]

Great.
Now when do I get to meet ET?

im thinking that maybe we could be the ETs.

[Rich316 Profile]

Oh we are and the other guys are our cousins - so dont have sex with them ok,