Posted on 01/11/2012 11:05:37 AM PST by presidio9
A statistical analysis based on a survey of millions of stars suggests that there's at least one planet for every star in the sky, and probably more. That would add up to 160 billion planets or so in the Milky Way.
"We conclude that stars are orbited by planets as a rule, rather than the exception," an international research team reports today in the journal Nature.
The estimate may sound amazing: Just a year ago, the world was wowed by the claim that at least half of the 100 billion or more stars in the Milky Way possessed planets, yielding a figure of 50 billion planets. The latest survey now suggests that there's an average of 1.6 planets per star system, which would work out to 160 billion. But perhaps the most amazing thing about the findings is ... astronomers don't find them amazing at all.
"I am not surprised by the numbers," Didier Queloz, a planet-hunter at the Geneva Observatory who was not involved in the survey, told me in an email. Back in 2008, Queloz was part of a different research team that concluded one-third of the stars like our sun harbored super-Earth-size planets — the kinds of planets that could support life.
Over the past couple of years, findings from a variety of planet-hunting missions — including NASA's Kepler space telescope, the European Space Agency's COROT telescope and ground-based telescope surveys — have reinforced the view that planets are plentiful.
"Resiuts from the three main techniques of planet detection are rapidly converging to a common result: Not only are planets common in the galaxy, but there are more small planets than large ones," Caltech astronomer Stephen Kane, a member of the team behind the findings reported in Nature,
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com ...
Feeling small yet?
/johnny
of course there are! there has to be one for each mormon to be God of !
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 an estimated 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe.
If there are any semi-tropical locations with a earth atmosphere ..beam me up!
Size of the Universe: It’s really, really big:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0lxbzgwW7I
WOW! That is simply an AMAZING number!! Just think, if there were only 100 times that number of planets, there would be a planet for each and every dollar of the US Debt! And, what might be even MORE amazing, if you multiply the number of milky way planets by 500 times.... you have a planet for each and every dollar of US unfunded liabilites!
Now, can we get each and every one of those planets for fork over (or just tax them), like $10 so's we can pay it off?
“of course there are! there has to be one for each mormon to be God of !”
Oh, come on, man! That was uncalled for.
But, I imagine that one might need additional executive experience to take that big of a job.
I’d like to beam up some leftists—but only if it’s like Alaska without the brief warm period.
Wow, that is a lot of planets, I would say the number of moons around gas giants would be even bigger in the galaxy.
pronounced “beeelions”, of course
Ha! You’re one in a million, man!
Of course, statistically speaking, that means there’s somewhere near 7,000 like you just here on earth. And with 160 billion planets in the Milky Way and 170 billion galaxies out there...
Drat. I guess you are pretty darn commonplace, actually. Sorry about that.
“160 billion planets in the Milky Way?!”
That’s interesting. The very first thing I thought of when I read this is that in the next debate, somebody should ask Romney which one he will be a god over. (Since he believes that God our Father and Jesus were both men just like himself - and BECAME gods.)
What we believe matters. It affects our world view. Our world view affects the decisions we make. I want a President who doesn’t believe he’s going to be god.
Scott
http://www.tableofwisdom.com
"Okay. That means that..our whole solar system...could be, like...one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being......This is too much!.....That means..one tiny atom in my fingernail could be—"
"Could be one little...tiny universe"
"Can I buy some pot from you?"
Jhn 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Act 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein…
Hbr 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the WORLDS
Hbr 11:3 Through faith we understand that the WORLDS were framed by the word of God
Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else.
The billions of WORLDS spinning through the billions of galaxies were not made in vain either!
They’re inhabited.
Billions and billions of them, but some people get paid to find more.
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