Posted on 06/24/2020 9:09:55 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
A new estimate suggests the Milky Way is home to six billion Earth-like planets. So far, we’ve found just one potential candidate.
In 2009, the Kepler space telescope constantly watched over some 200,000 stars in our corner of the Milky Way. It was looking for where life might exist—by pinpointing small, rocky planets in the temperate zones of warm, yellow suns, and figuring out just how special Earth is in the grand scheme of things. While the mission revolutionized the study of exoplanets, those main objectives went largely unfulfilled. A mechanical failure cut short Kepler’s initial survey in 2013. Astronomers would later discover just a single Earthlike planet in its dataset.
A decade later, researchers are finally closing in on some of the answers to the questions Kepler raised. Earthlike planets are probably rare, but not exceedingly so. Roughly one in five yellow stars could have one, according to a new analysis of Kepler’s data published in May in The Astronomical Journal. If the researchers’ conclusions are correct, that would mean the Milky Way might be home to nearly 6 billion Earths. Yet of the 4,000 likely exoplanets we’ve spotted, just one looks anything like our home planet. So where are the rest?
“[Truly Earthlike planets] are not hiding per se, it’s just that the sensitivity of our telescopes is simply not good enough yet [to find them],” says Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at the Technical University Berlin, Germany, who was not involved with the research.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
Exactly why there are no life bearing planets except earth.
It’s not just that they should be there.
They should have reached out and found us a thousand times over.
They are not there.
“Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space...”
Because it is pure conjecture. There has also never been one verified case of a new “species” that has “evolved.” Why can we not find that too?
Exoplanets are shy.
Because our Earth was cast far and away in order to protect the others.
Yep, as telescopes improve we’ll start to identify them.
Several have probably already been found and need identification, but most of the data we’ve collected is about planets with a short orbital period which are not likely candidates.
“Keep your eyes on the stars”
-Teddy Roosevelt
Computer models not matching up with reality again.
Life is far more rarer and precious than the control freaks want to believe.
All life matters.
Because “should be” has a flawed basis?
I have all my life, heard there are very few candidates.
Now suddenly, this “expert” is saying one in five stars is a possible home?
Wtf?
Maybe we’re the first?
If they found us, would they be stupid enough to:
—Give away their location
—Let us know they found us
One definition of intelligence is the understanding of the necessity to hide your intelligence from potentially hostile “others”.
By that definition, btw, humans are stunningly stupid.
Maybe they don’t want to be found.
HaHaHaHaHaha....
Assuming that the premise is true. There should be no life on any of them including ours.
Our solar system has 3 rocky planets in the Goldilocks zone but only 1 in habitable.
I can recommend the book “Rare Earth” for a full explanation.
We’re literally 1 in a million or billion or more.
Unless the awareness of how much electronic noise a civilization makes, is a way for other, more advanced civilizations who no longer send out so much, to keep an eye on us from a distance.
Just saying.
Not sure whether I am kidding. Not at all.
““Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is...”
There is no measurement of space because it is endless. When you get to the end there is always something on the other side.
Perhaps the black book is actually true, and there doesn’t HAVE to be anything other than what is manifested by a Creator. Just as plausible.
Agreed—one of the major weaknesses we humans have is we overestimate our intelligence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
I don’t think we would recognize an alien intelligence (higher than our own) if it was right in front of our faces.
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