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A Quarter of Sun-Like Stars Host Earth-Size Worlds

astroengine writes "Although there appears to be a mysterious dearth of exoplanets smaller than Earth, astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope have estimated that nearly a quarter of all sun-like stars in our galaxy play host to worlds 1-3 times the size of our planet. These astonishing results were discussed by Geoff Marcy, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, during a talk the W. M. Keck Observatory 20th Anniversary Science Meeting on Thursday. '23 percent of sun-like stars have a planet within (1-2.8 Earth radii) just within Mercury's orbit,' said Marcy. 'I'll say that again, because that number really surprised me: 23 percent of sun-like stars have a nearly-Earth-sized planet orbiting in tight orbits within 0.25 AU of the host stars.'"

2 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Great! by sycodon · · Score: 1, Funny

    PS 1 A.U. is the distance of the Earth to the Sun, just in case you didn't/don't know.

    Doesn't that make us "earthists"? It's like the Interstellar equivalent to the Imperial system.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  2. I'll say that again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    And now you've said it four times. You said the same thing four times. Four times. The entire summary is just the same statement made four times.