Jan 4 - 100 Billion Alien Planets Fill Our Milky Way Galaxy: Study

Our Milky Way galaxy is home to at least 100 billion alien planets, and possibly many more, a new study suggests.

"It's a staggering number, if you think about it," lead author Jonathan Swift, of Caltech in Pasadena, said in a statement. "Basically there's one of these planets per star."

Swift and his colleagues arrived at their estimate after studying a five-planet system called Kepler-32, which lies about 915 light-years from Earth. The five worlds were detected by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, which flags the tiny brightness dips caused when exoplanets cross their star's face from the instrument's perspective.

The Kepler-32 planets orbit an M dwarf, a type of star that is smaller and cooler than our sun. M dwarfs are the most common star in the Milky Way, accouting for about 75 percent of the galaxy's 100 billion or so stars, researchers said.

Further, the five Kepler-32 worlds are similar in size to Earth and orbit quite close to their parent star, making them typical of the planets Kepler has spotted around other M dwarfs. So the Kepler-32 system should be representative of many of the galaxy's planets, scientists said.

"I usually try not to call things 'Rosetta stones,' but this is as close to a Rosetta stone as anything I've seen," said co-author John Johnson, also of Caltech. "It's like unlocking a language that we're trying to understand — the language of planet formation."

Kepler can detect planetary systems only if they're oriented edge-on to the telescope; otherwise, the instrument won't observe any star-dimming planetary transits. So the researchers calculated the odds that an M-dwarf system in the Milky Way would have this orientation, then combined that with the number of such systems Kepler is able to detect to come up with their estimate of 100 billion exoplanets.

The team considered only planets orbiting close to M dwarfs; their analysis didn't include outer planets in M-dwarf systems, or any worlds circling other types of stars. So the galaxy may actually harbor many more planets than the conservative estimate implies — perhaps 200 billion, or about two per star, Swift said.

good book says nothing about all these planets.


religious scholars speak of the stars and neighboring planets but none of this other stuff.


we are the only intelligent life until god tells me otherwise

just my point of view tho[pic]

good book says nothing about all these planets.


religious scholars speak of the stars and neighboring planets but none of this other stuff.


we are the only intelligent life until god tells me otherwise

just my point of view tho[pic]

[pic]

good book says nothing about all these planets.


religious scholars speak of the stars and neighboring planets but none of this other stuff.


we are the only intelligent life until god tells me otherwise

just my point of view tho[pic]

[pic]

Godless devils

if people actually think we are the only life forms in the galaxy [pic]

good book says nothing about all these planets.


religious scholars speak of the stars and neighboring planets but none of this other stuff.


we are the only intelligent life until god tells me otherwise

just my point of view tho[pic]

good book says nothing about all these planets.


religious scholars speak of the stars and neighboring planets but none of this other stuff.


we are the only intelligent life until god tells me otherwise

just my point of view tho[pic]

good book says nothing about all these planets.


religious scholars speak of the stars and neighboring planets but none of this other stuff.


we are the only intelligent life until god tells me otherwise

just my point of view tho[pic]

[pic]

All god's creations tho. I don't see a need to debate with you guys.


Your going to hell, that's just what I believe. sorry

All god's creations tho. I don't see a need to debate with you guys.


Your going to hell, that's just what I believe. sorry

god created the fossils.........


Everything has to come from something, unless that something is an omnipotent being. You atheist are so ignorant to reason and logic that you stoop so low as to discredit the only known truth in this universe.


Shock and awed. My good book has prepared for the return, you can continue being spoon-feed lies if you want[pic]

Sandy continues to impress me with how incredibly illogical and unintelligent he is [pic]

god created the fossils.........


Everything has to come from something, unless that something is an omnipotent being. You atheist are so ignorant to reason and logic that you stoop so low as to discredit the only known truth in this universe.


Shock and awed. My good book has prepared for the return, you can continue being spoon-feed lies if you want[pic]