Craig Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Our galaxy has at least 100 billion other worlds http://planetquest.j...asa.gov/news/38 Our Milky Way galaxy contains a minimum of 100 billion planets, according to a detailed statistical study based on the detection of three planets located outside our solar system, called exoplanets. The discovery, to be reported in the January 12 issue of Nature, was made by an international team of astronomers, including co-author Stephen Kane of NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. The survey results show that our galaxy contains, on average, a minimum of one planet for every star. This means that it’s likely there are a minimum of 1,500 planets within just 50 light-years of Earth. The study is based on observations taken over six years by the PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) collaboration, using a technique called microlensing to survey the galaxy for planets. In this technique, one star acts like a magnifying lens to brighten the light from a background star. If planets are orbiting the foreground star, the background star's light will further brighten, revealing the presence of a planet that is otherwise too faint to be seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 And one of them must contain life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Hope it doesn't have a Conservative government lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Strings Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I'm betting on there being loads of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm betting on there being loads of them What, Conservatives? Hope not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 And one of them must contain life. One does! Hope it doesn't have a Conservative government lol And it does... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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