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Study Estimates 100 Billion Planets In the Milky Way Galaxy
The Bad Astronomer writes "A new study finds that there may be 100 billion alien planets in the Milky Way alone, with 17 billion of them the size of Earth. Announcements like this have been made before, but this new research is more robust than previous studies, using data from the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft over a longer period and analyzing it in a more statistically solid way (PDF). They also found that smaller planets are not as picky about their host stars, with terrestrial planets forming around stars like the Sun or as small as tiny, cool red dwarfs with equal ease."
We are not alone.
So are they saying there is 100,000,000,001 total planets? Thats some accuracy!
Are planets in our Solar System "Alien" or are we claiming ownership over them?
I think they just wanted to use Alien in the summary.
But only a few million will be suitable for life-as-we-know-it, Jim
I remember when I was a kid and the mere suggestion of more than one planet was outlandish.
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From our view of the universe, it's like a double cone shape extending out from our little cluster in one of the many arms of our galaxy. We can see relatively well above and below the galactic disc , but we can't see very well 360 degrees around us into the disc. There is too much material there to see passed the first few layers still within our arm of the galaxy.
17 billion in the Milky Way. There's a metric shit ton of other Galaxies.
"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
I wonder if there is any way to statically guess the number of planets in the Goldilocks zone, the approximate distance from a star for liquid water to be possible. That would be a very interesting number but I'll just throw out a guess there will be more than one. It's remarkable to think of all the possible life that could be out there. We are probably destend to never meet, but it's interesting nonetheless. I think one of the greatest things finding life elsewhere would accomplish if it ever were to happen, is to study evolution on a completely different scale. The diversity on Earth alone is remarkable, to think what an entirely different planet might produce makes my imagination go wild.
The Keppler field of view is only a couple of thousands lightyear deep. That means the results are based on our neck of the woods only. Now, it may be ok to assume that other outskirts of the Milky Way are similar, but there is no reason to assume the same applies for the center of the galaxy, where most of the stars are, very closely packed.
100 billion planets and I have to be stuck on this one.
How long before we get visitors from the red-dwarf terrestials, flying around and zapping people with their heat vision? Dicks.
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
So 0bama could send $100 government aid to every planet in our galaxy and only add another $10 trillion to the deficit. Please don't give him any ideas.
Assuming that our solar systems layout is pretty average in the galaxy that puts about 11 Billion planets in the (current) habitable zone, assuming 1% of those have life that leaves 110 Million planets, assuming that 1% of those have complex life, that is about 1 Million planets, and assuming that 1% of worlds where complex life develops intelligent life follows that suggests about 10,000 planets. Sounds about right.
Richard Dawson Not Surprised
It's all relative isn't it - 100 billion, 100 septillion - a Googol - infinity? What difference does it make? As above is below - macro is micro - fractals - welcome to the holographic universe - and all that. Seriously, how does this answer anything besides saying that there's 'more' than our limited minds can comprehend - or perhaps that the universe itself is a mind? Perhaps it's all an illusion - maya. ;-)
Everybody lives on a street in a city
Or a village or a town for what it's worth.
And they're all inside a country which is part of a continent
That sits upon a planet known as Earth.
And the Earth is a ball full of oceans and some mountains
Which is out there spinning silently in space.
And living on that Earth are the plants and the animals
And also the entire human race.
It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
It's big and black and inky
And we are small and dinky
It's a big universe and we're not.
And we're part of a vast interplanetary system
Stretching seven hundred billion miles long.
With nine planets and a sun; we think the Earth's the only one
That has life on it, although we could be wrong.
Across the interstellar voids are a billion asteroids
Including meteors and Halley's Comet too.
And there's over fifty moons floating out there like balloons
In a panoramic trillion-mile view.
And still it's all a speck amid a hundred billion stars
In a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
It's sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other
And still that's just a fraction of the way.
'Cause there's a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky
Filled with constellations, planets, moons and stars.
And still the universe extends to a place that never ends
Which is maybe just inside a little jar!
It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
Though we don't know how it got here
We're an important part here
It's a big universe and it's ours!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
The numbers associated with the universe are just amazing. The universe is so big that anything possible becomes probable... you might even say "anything possible is guaranteed to happen somewhere... and probably a lot of somewheres".
You think the odds against intelligent life around any random star are one in 10^12? Then there should be at least 10^10 stars with intelligent life.
The universe really is that vast.
it would have taken 60 days to create them that's why he went with 640K and 6 days,
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
so, there's 100 billion planets.
of those, 1 billion are in habitable zones
of those, 1 million are capable of sustaining life
of those, 1 contains intelligent life NOW
all we need to do is find it.
"may be"?
Whatever happened to the scientific method?
What I am more concerned with is the extent to which the
modern search for aliens is, at rock-bottom, part of an ancient
religious quest.
—Paul Davies, Are We Alone? 1995
. . . when I address the floor tomorrow . . . we will not be
talking about SETI . . . we will be talking about HRMS,
which is the new name by which this program continues to
have life. And it will be my intention, once again, to offer
an amendment which specifically deletes the funding for this
program.
—Senator Richard Bryan, Congressional Record,
September 20, 1993
The president just gets to edit it a little.
Show me one, because I estimate 0
The important part is the ability to form long, complex chains. Only two elements can do that: Carbon and silicon. Carbon is better at it. Silicon may be good enough.
It's not just the the chain of base atoms, it is the geometry of the entire molecule. Silicon, being a significantly larger atom than carbon puts the atoms attached to it in a different spacial pattern than if they were attached to carbon. Therefore, what is attached to them is also in a different location. It just doesn't work with silicon as the base because the silicon based organic molecules don't allow things to align in a way that is condusive for the processes that would lead to life. The most abundant atom on earth is silicon and yet there is no evidence of self replicating silicon based molecules. The geometry simply doesn't work out.