‘Planets Are Like Bunnies’: Astronomers Say Planets Likely to Outnumber Stars in Our Galaxy
- Posted on January 12, 2012 at 12:30am by
Liz Klimas
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Milky Way galaxy. (Image: ESO)
WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — Sky-gazing experts estimate that there are more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Now, add to that the conservative estimate by astronomers that there are 1.6 planets for every star — that’s a crowded and crazy cosmos.
And they’ve only begun to count.
Three studies released Wednesday, in the journal Nature and at the American Astronomical Society’s conference in Austin, Texas, demonstrate an extrasolar real estate boom. One of those studies shows that in our Milky Way, most stars have planets. And since there are a lot of stars in our galaxy — about 100 billion — that means a lot of planets.
“We‘re finding an exciting potpourri of things we didn’t even think could exist,” said Harvard University astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger, including planets that mirror “Star Wars” Luke Skywalker’s home planet with twin suns.
“We‘re awash in planets where 17 years ago we weren’t even sure there were planets” outside our solar system, said Kaltenegger, who wasn’t involved in the new research.
Astronomers are finding other worlds using three different techniques and peering through telescopes in space and on the ground.
Confirmed planets outside our solar system — called exoplanets — now number well over 700, still-to-be-confirmed ones are in the thousands.
NASA’s new Kepler planet-hunting telescope in space is discovering exoplanets that are in a zone friendly to life and detecting planets as small as Earth or even tinier. That’s moving the field of looking for some kind of life outside Earth from science fiction toward just plain science.
One study in Nature this week figures that the Milky Way averages at least 1.6 large planets per star. And that is likely a dramatic underestimate.
That study is based on only one intricate and time-consuming method of planet hunting that uses several South American, African and Australian telescopes. Astronomers look for increases in brightness of distant stars that indicate planets between Earth and that pulsating star. That technique usually finds only bigger planets and is good at finding those further away from their stars, sort of like our Saturn or Uranus.
Kepler and a different ground-based telescope technique are finding planets closer to their stars. Putting those methods together, the number of worlds in our galaxy is probably much closer to two or more planets per star, said the Nature study author Arnaud Cassan of the Astrophysical Institute in Paris.
Popular Science reports one expert not involved in the study as saying there could be even more:
“Planets are like bunnies; you don’t just get one, you get a bunch,” said Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute who was not involved in this research. “So really, the number of planets in the Milky Way is probably like five or 10 times the number of stars. That’s something like a trillion planets.”
Most recently, NASA announced that Kepler has identified three of the smallest exoplanets yet to be detected orbiting a star.
Artist rendering of the three recently found exoplanets. (Image: NASA)
Dan Werthimer, chief scientist at the University of California Berkeley‘s search for extraterrestrial intelligence program and who wasn’t part of the studies, was thrilled: “It’s great to know that there are planets out there that we can point our telescopes at.”
It’s not just the number of planets, but where they are found. Scientists once thought systems with two stars were just too chaotic to have planets nearby. But so far, astronomers have found three different systems where planets have two suns, something that a few years ago seemed like purely “Star Wars” movie magic.
“Nature must like to form planets because it’s forming them in places that are kind of difficult to do,” said San Diego State University astronomy professor William Welsh, who wrote a study about planets with two stars that’s also published in the journal Nature.
The gravity of two stars makes the area near them unstable, Welsh said. So astronomers thought that if a planet formed in that area, it would be torn apart. He said these are planets “so close to the edge where it would teeter over and fall” if they moved a bit closer in, Welsh said.
Late last year, Kepler telescope found one system with two stars. It was considered a freak. Then Welsh used Kepler to find two more. Now Welsh figures such planetary systems, while not common, are not rare either.
The two systems that Welsh found have another trait that excites him. They are near — but not in — the all-important habitable zone. That‘s the area that’s not too hot and not too cold, so that liquid water could exist and thus so could life. With two stars, the planet goes through a strange and rapid heating and cooling in a few months, something most planets don’t do. Overall they average about 100 degrees, he said.
“Planets are extremely frequent, extremely common,” Welsh said. “More common than we ever imagined. That’s a really good sign if you are searching for life beyond Earth.”
Last year, one planet, dubbed the Goldilocks planet, was found outside of our solar system within a star’s habitable zone.
With all these planets, Popular Science reports Shostak as saying that it would be unusual not to find a planet similar to that of Earth. He states that while they may all be “as sterile as an autoclave”, that doesn’t seem very likely as “that would make us very odd.”
On the flip side, Popular Science reports Paul Davies, an astrobiologist at Arizona State University, as saying that since scientists still don’t understand all the components and methodology necessary for life to form, it doesn’t matter how many planets there are. If the odds are one in a trillion, he says, for life to form, the likelihood of finding life on other planets is still slim.
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Comments (61)
Calm Voice of Reason
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 9:59pmI see a lot of people in these comments who are postitively flabergasted at the notion that it took so long for scientists to find out that there are more planets than stars in the Universe. Well, they didn’t just find this out, this is the sorry state of science journalism, where minor events or bits of trivia are sent screaming into the either with 30pt headlines and sensationalist conclusions that were never implied by those doing the research. Everybody knows that there trillions+ planets out there, we only just now have empirical proof of it-the sort of thing Creationists are always demanding from the scientific community.
Report Post »Eetram384BC
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 5:57pm400 years ago flight was a fools folly, 100 years ago the moon was either cheese or maybe rock, 10 years ago ours was the only solar system, man was made to create, invent and imagine, I’m not packing yet, but one day a human will walk amongst the stars, and see planets like gliese 581g. Thanks to special relativity, @.75% light speed form the POV of the traveler gliese 581g is only a 5 year trip! (30 from the perspective of everyone else)
Report Post »ArgumentumAdAbsurdum
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 6:29pmWho in 2002 thought that ours was the only solar system?
Report Post »Cold Hard Truth
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 2:53pmYet another fine example of how we are long past the point of needing to abolish public schools altogether.
Report Post »Cold Hard Truth
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 3:01pmSomehow this got put here while I was posting in another stoty, apologies to all.
Report Post »SpeaknUp
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:47pmSo what if there’s over 700 confirmed planets in the universe? Find me one, just one, besides Earth that is habitable. Until you can do that, it doesn’t really matter how many rocks there are out there floating around stars. It just amuses me how much this issue baffles scientists…that Earth is the only place in our field of vision where life is possible. They’ll believe almost anything…except that God created this planet for life, and then created life to live on it. Keep looking, fools.
Report Post »Republichic
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 2:32pmExpertly said. I’m with you.
Report Post »Eetram384BC
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 5:46pmgliese 581g. Earth size and in the goldylocks zone
Report Post »judyaz
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:13pm“Body — spirit — soul — God! — many worlds — many universes — many galaxies, like pebbles on a beach, so vast. Each galaxy set up for man[‘s] expansion.”
“Which is most important?”
“God!”
“Who is God?”
“God is………..everything.”
[See page 2 of https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzyT3fgGxb4-OWNmYzEwMDQtODQ1OC00NGU5LTk4YjctNzU5NzMzY2JiZWQ0
Report Post »judyaz
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:24pmAlthough this tape recording in 1970 of a man as he whispered from an epileptic coma is hard to understand on the hand-held tape recorder his wife grabbed, thinking the neurologists would like to hear, you can actually listen to the words as he describes the universe and universes, world beyond worlds. http://soundcloud.com/aka-13/in-the-beginning-the-first
Report Post »Do we all have the potential to know this?
FoxholeAtheist
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 12:48pmWonderful and fascinating. It gives me hope for the future.
Report Post »OneTermPresident
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:02pmYou have none.
Report Post »Romans8
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:48pmAll reason lacks authority… vanity is inverted glory.
Report Post »Accepting the mystery leads to life… To glory That will not decay.
John 17, Romans 8
Romans8
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:51pmread them. And respond. I dare you.
Report Post »ATM
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 12:44pmDo you know how the moon was formed? Another planet “Theia” formed in the accretion disc extremely close to our orbit and crashed into the early Earth. The same research you speak of says that these collisions are very common. This one just happened to occur at the right distance from the sun and at the right angle to form our moon. Far from impossible, its improbable, but so are most events in the universe but the sheer size of it makes any possible event likely to be occurring somewhere. The proclamation that nowhere else in the universe is there a moon is silly. We can barely see other planets, most are found indirectly and not observed directly. So if we cant even zoom in on planets how can u claim those planets don’t have moons? The counter balance of the moon has nothing to do with the earths life cycle. The wobble of the earths spin without the moon would change over 100s of thousands of years, substantially long enough for life to adjust to it :if an ice age every few 10 thousand years doesn‘t wipe out the life cycle this wouldn’t. Nor are four seasons necessary for life , have you heard of the equator?
Report Post »Jobeycool
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 10:59amHow in the world is planets out numbering stars so incredibly a major major find.Should be common sense.
Report Post »SageInWaiting
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 10:31amAnother central Star Trek premise has scientific backing…. interesting (but trivial).
Report Post »SageInWaiting
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 10:12amWow! You think??? A star’s gravity is an amazing thing and can capture most anything passing by.
Report Post »the_ancient
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 9:58amThe fact that they were shocked/surpised that there are other planets amazes me,
I still find it amazingly arrogant to think we are the only planet that could ever support life, or even intelligent life.
Now you can debate if any of that life has ever figured out how to travel here, but to say there is no life out there at all, even if they are stuck on their planet like we are, is crazy
Report Post »Roaran
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 12:30pmI think you’d have to first ask.. where does life come from?
If there were an singular event that create life on earth, I don’t think it would be surprising to suspect the earth then is the only planet to have life.
But we’ve already proven that there could be life in space… we went to the moon, people lived there for however short of a time.
Until you know the source of life.. I mean really know… all you can do is guess.
Report Post »Tomr
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 9:49amMore intriguing than the size and composition of the cosmos is the existence of life therein. Is planet earth so unique that it is a privileged place (1 in a googolplex) for life to exist? Hawking explains away the formation of the universe via the big bang theory. He goes on to state that this event occurred spontaneously, without cause or purpose. Quite a simple and convenient theory for generating such a massive and complex universe. Whether Darwinian, Creationist or Intelligent Design believer, there is no simple theory for the formation of life, even in its simplest state let alone an intelligent form such as **** sapiens. Where did all the information come from such that only 20 different amino acids can arrange themselves in the perfect sequence to form over 30,000 types of proteins needed for the existence of life. If we follow the trail of information, where will it lead us?
Report Post »FifthWheel
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 4:24pmDid The Blaze edit out **** sapiens by putting **** in it’s place? I have to post this to see! That would be funny. I wonder if it would do the same thing with homosexual?
Report Post »Luke21
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 10:41pmWhere will it lead us? Right back to the beginning….
In the beginning Stephen Hawking was there & witnessed Nothing Explode for No Reason (& he‘s the ’smartest’ man on the planet? a 5 yr old has better sense than that)… Or maybe it went like this:
[General Revelation]
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth became without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let light be: and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3)
To Mr. Hawking the Lord God says:
the LORD answered.., and said: “Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it..? (Job 38)
[Special Revelation]
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.(John 1:1-4,14)
BTW nice summary on info
Report Post »ShyMan
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:47amInteresting reading. I think it‘s pretty amazing what we’ve learned about the universe these last 100 years or so. But let’s be real. We will “never” be able to reach those “exoplanets .”
If you want to search the night sky for ET pleae do it without spending taxpayer money.
If you want to do research on the moon or mars I’m ok with that. We might find other sources of energy here in our solar system. But spending money on looking at wobbly stars? No thanks.
Spend your own money.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 11:01amI bet that you still believe that the speed of light is the “universal speed limit” as well. Let me ask you just how many test rockets have we sent into orbit around the sun with the express purpose of just seeing how fast they can go? None. Because everyone thinks that the speed of light is the limit. Well, it isn’t. A simple look at physics and the idea of reference frames will make you realize that our entire universe could be moving at 1400X the speed of light to the left and nothing would change because the entire universe is in the same frame of reference. Also, Einstein’s “experiment” that “proved” that gravity bends space and time is a sham. During a solar eclipse he looked for the light from a star that should have been just behind the sun. Because he saw the star, he ASSUMED that the light from the star bent around the sun. In reality, all it would take is light bending towards the sun from another trajectory in order for him to see the star. Remember, it was Einstein who said that one piece of evidence is all that it would take to render his theories as garbage.
Report Post »jay1975
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 4:27pm“The Congress shall have Power To…promote the Progress of Science”
Report Post »wretchedman
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:20am‘And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy (God’s) creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;’
Report Post »The above quote is from Selections from the Book of Moses. An extract from the translation of the Bible as revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, December of 1830.
rocketwrangler
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:42amYou should really try doing some research on church history. http://www.utlm.org/
Report Post »http://www.hotm.tv/shows-2011.htm
Luke21
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:44am@An extract from the translation of the Bible as revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, December of 1830.
With all due respect, the “revelation” J. Smith received was that which was revealed to the prophets thousands of years ealier. Joseph simply read the Bible. If he claimed them to be some new revelation, he was not a truthful man.
blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. (Genesis 22:17)
Then [the Lord] brought [Abram] outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” (Genesis 15:5)
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. (Psalms 139:18)
Thus says the LORD, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me. I have made the earth, And created man on it. I—My hands—stretched out the heavens, And all their host I have commanded. (Isaiah 45:11-12)
He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion. (Jeremiah 10:12)
“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion? … Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion ove
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 7:42amIs the fact that planets outnumber stars a revelation to anyone who lived in the last 300 years?
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:38amLol. Yeah, and I suppose it would be a revelation that there are lots of people out there in the galaxy also, and also intelligent beings which are not people.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:40amLook at even the intelligence of a dolphin here on earth. Now imagine if the dolphin had flippers that could also be used as hands and feet?
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:41amAnd most of them are stuck in captivity on a planet just as you are until they conquer.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:45amTo “Conquer” what is conquer? Well to conquer the “earth” of course, that’s the earth of your awareness, your lusts, your desires, to conquer “The deep” but not the face of the earth.
Report Post »BBReggie
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 6:58amWhat’s so exciting about this? It’s like learning that there are more leaves on a tree than there are trunks. There are more planets than stars in our own solar system … something around 1 star to 8 or more planets. Why would we think other solar systems are different?? Planets outnumbering stars is a mathematical certainty.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 7:56amBlaze Exlusive: This just in, the World is not flat! Coming tomorrow, the moon is not made of cheese.
Report Post »Madcow29
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 6:01amThe awesomeness of the universe is mind blowing – just its size alone. There are 100s of billions of stars in our galaxy but there are the same number if not more galaxies in the universe. And yet the distance between just two stars is so vast it would take LIGHT YEARS to get to. Even if we could travel the speed of light, it would still take hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of years to get to deep space. Thus, even at the speed of light we could not explore much of the universe in our life time. With that many stars and that many planets out there surely there is one that has life on it. But is there any life form that has the technology to travel those distances? Who knows. I watch too much “Wonders of the Universe” and “Universe” — great shows btw ;)
Report Post »Cat
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 5:51amMost of those who live in urban areas get to see something spectacular on every clear night.
The first time I looked at the Milky Way was when I was with my family in the Painted Desert in Arizona.
I stopped walking, got on the ground on my back and looked up.
My two brothers joined me.
Mom and dad stood above us and watched us gaze into the sky.
No one said a word for the longest time.
Mom broke the silence with her words.
“You boys know that is a very small part of God you’re looking at.”
The next time I saw the same thing was thirty four years later when I was driving through the center of Florida in a Corvette, on a crystal clear night, with the sun roof off.
I turned the car onto the next dirt drive and turned it off, looked up and asked the woman sitting next to me, “Is that a very small part of God we’re looking at?”
The woman simply responded, “Yes.”
Report Post »She also said yes to the next question.
Cat
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 6:18amCorrection …
Report Post »Most of those who live in urban areas – DON’T – get to see something spectacular on every clear night.
Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 6:33amAnd the next question was,,,, can you grab me a bud lite babe ; ))
Report Post »Cat
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 7:54amDetriot paperboy >
It was 2 iced Moet Chandon champange splits and 2 Waterford crystal flutes …
Report Post »suzy000
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 4:59amNow that we are well on our way to finding planets that can sustain life…we need to get to work on traveling at the speed of light or faster. With those in the Middle East with nukes or trying to get them….the doomsday clock is ticking faster.
Report Post »bates8963
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 4:31amIntelligent Creation is simply confirmed by this and most research. What is remarkable is that life exists at all…… Look, no life on earth is possible without the moon….. but, the moon is impossible…… it can’t exist. No where else in the known universe is there a moon with the properties of our’s. Our moon is way too big for it’s orbit….. and a host of other properties that are scientifically impossible…. I mean “impossible”….. The earth’s life cycle, i.e. carbon based life forms, could not exist without the counter-balance of the moon. 4 seasons ring a bell with anyone?…… So, the next time you are faced with a non-believer or blind scientist, simply point out the miracle of the moon…..
Report Post »ArgumentumAdAbsurdum
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 4:50amwow you make a lot of statements without actually providing any data to back them up. How is the moon “impossible”? What properties? How is life not possible(it is) without the moon? In what way is it too large for its orbit? What does(it doesnt but Id like to hear your answer) the moon have to do with the 4 seasons?
Report Post »BetterDays
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 2:04amGOD calls our Earth a world, GOD also says there are 10,000 x 10,000 worlds, in other words there are a great many planets out there.
Report Post »So instead of relying on a 2000+ year old collection of facts, science spends millions to tell us what we already were told?
Exiges
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 2:25amUh…they’re not spending millions of dollars to count planets. They’re looking for habitable ones. And in the process have proven what we hypothesized to be true. Just because someone writes a fluff piece citing scientific research as evidence does not mean that the research being untaken is a waste.
Report Post »RisetovotesiR
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 2:26am“So instead of relying on a 2000+ year old collection of facts, science spends millions to tell us what we already were told.”
Facts are able to be tested using the scientific method and proven over a series of experiments over a period of time. the only facts given by the bible creation stories, are that humans are superstitious, gullible, and ignorant. there are absolutely no facts backing the biblical version of creation, those that were created by religious zealots (trying to hold on to their ass backward beliefs), hold no water. it is only a book people, facts are facts religion is not factual. faith is the absence of facts, not scientific nor correct at any time.
Report Post »nelbert
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 3:58amWell 10,000 x 10,000 is only 100 million and they know there are far more planets than that.
Report Post »Sorry, it’s late and I just feel a bit ornery.
Once more with feeling, science is not challenging your faith.
The research is to see what’s out there, how it compares to what’s here, and to see if by looking out there we can get a better idea why it’s the way it is here. As scientists in the 18th or 19th centuries might have put it, they are trying to understand God’s plan.
To those that think all this a frivolous waste of money (if it actually came from public sources), remember “pure research” almost always develops new technology that can be of commercial use. Our foray into space brought us the internet, hand-held calculators and personal computers, better fire fighter suits, better baby foods, and the technological edge to be the top superpower. (An edge we desperately need to regain).
Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:54amAnd Democrats are like uranus……..
Report Post »ArgumentumAdAbsurdum
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 4:34amDemocrats are ice giants?
Report Post »Mannax
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 5:51amUranus is a gas giant. A giant gas bag. *snorts*
Report Post »And it is not just democrats, it is all politicians.
ArgumentumAdAbsurdum
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 3:52pm@mannax
Report Post »uranus and neptune, while technically gas giants, are usually separated from jupiter and saturn and referred to as ice giants due to their composition of water, methane, and ammonia ices.
Quagaar Warrior
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:26am~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Report Post »Since multiple planets encircle most stars… Duh!!!
…and how much of our tax payer dollars was wasted on this research?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13th Generation American
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 12:55amThe atoms in your right hand came from a different supernova than the atoms in your left. Stars had to die so we could form. Now that’s amazing.
Report Post »AMERICA4EVER
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:13amAvatar
Report Post »B-Neil
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 12:43amWho said God s not great? Only he could create such an awsome site. CARRY ON McDUFF
Report Post »Doctor Nordo
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:30amIn before “Herp derp, science sucks.”
Report Post »Doctor Nordo
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 1:31amSorry, that wasn’t meant to be a reply.
Report Post »