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- A new study suggests habitable exoplanets may be abundant in our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
- The researchers processed data on thousands of exoplanets discovered using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.
- Unfortunately, while future advances in telescope technology may allow us to pinpoint habitable worlds, we probably won’t be able to visit them for a long, long time to come.
The Milky Way is huge. I mean really, really huge. It has been estimated that our home galaxy is home to up to 400 billion stars. We live in orbit around only one of those stars and it has provided us with the energy we need to sustain life on our planet. But what about the countless other planets in our galaxy?
A new study suggests that if we’re looking for habitable worlds, other stars like our own Sun are perhaps our best bet. In fact, the researchers who published their work in The Astronomical Journal analyzed the numbers and estimated that there could be up to 300 million habitable planets in our galaxy.
The study focused on data collected from exoplanet surveys conducted between 2009 and 2018. NASA’s Kepler exoplanet hunting satellite provided scientists with an incredible wealth of information on the composition of distant planets and stars on which orbit. Now, using this information, researchers believe they can make an educated projection of how widespread Earth-like worlds really are.
The “rocky and habitable worlds” of our galaxy can be so common that one in two sun-like stars has one in its orbit. If that figure were even close to true, it would mean millions of habitable worlds lurking elsewhere in our galaxy. Of course, whether or not those planets harbor life is another question entirely, and we probably won’t answer anytime soon.
In the near future, hardware like the James Webb Space Telescope will provide researchers with even more information about exoplanets, including a detailed analysis of their atmospheres from afar. When that data comes back, it might be enough to uncover biological signatures or elements of the atmosphere that indicate the presence of life. If that happens, it will be incredibly exciting, but it will also mean that we will have to stare at these distant planets and ask ourselves if life is really flourishing there.
Put simply, we don’t yet have the technology to reliably send humans to other planets in our solar system, much less travel through interstellar space to other nearby stars in search of life. Our observation technology has outgrown our ability to actually visit the things we’re looking at, so while we may think we have spotted habitable worlds – or even worlds where life exists in some form – we probably won’t be able to confirm these results for quite a while.
Mike Wehner has been reporting on technology and video games for the past decade, covering the latest news and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and the technology of the future. Most recently, Mike worked as a Tech Editor at The Daily Dot and appeared on USA Today, Time.com, and countless other websites and print media. His love of reportage is second only to his addiction to games.
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