One Hundred Billion Planets Just in Our Galaxy

January 8th, 2013

Via: Slate:

For example, you can use some statistics to extrapolate how many planets there must be in our galaxy. A new study has done just that, and the number they get is stunning: they calculate there may be a hundred billion planets in the Milky Way, with 17 billion of them the size of Earth!

First, let me point out that previous studies have gotten roughly the same numbers (for example, recently my pal John Johnson of Caltech was part of an announcement that the number of planets in the Milky Way was around a hundred billion, using one star and its system of five planets as a basis; it’s solid work). This new study is important because it uses more data and analyzes it more robustly than most previous work.

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4 Responses to “One Hundred Billion Planets Just in Our Galaxy”

  1. JWSmythe says:

    That’s perfect! Once we finally deploy IPv6 and get IIP (Interplantary Internet Protocol) working, that’ll leave 3,402,823,669,209,384,634,633,746,074 for every planet.

    Ok, enough of the sarcasm. Once we start managing to explore them, we’ll hopefully find out that the odds of an occupied planet is better than 1:100,000,000,000. Well, that may not be as fortune an event as some would hope.

  2. steve holmes says:

    Why did I have to get stuck on this one with so many idiots? Time to blame my parents.

  3. MBerger47 says:

    We are here to witness and participate in a great transition as we wake up to the fact that we are far from alone in the galaxy. We are here as our planet enters the greater community of worlds and we all have a role, albeit a small role, to play in this unfolding. Read the Allies of Humanity briefings if this resonates with you: http://www.alliesofhumanity.org

  4. soothing hex says:

    Tamagochildren or death.

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