More Planets Than Stars in Our Galaxy

[n2doc]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 11, 2012 at 4:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — The more astronomers look for other worlds, the more they find that it's a crowded and crazy cosmos. They think planets easily outnumber stars in our galaxy and they're even finding them in the strangest of places.

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 study 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 and a mini-star system with a dwarf sun and shrunken planets.

"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.

more
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/01/11/science/AP-US-SCI-Plentiful-Planets.html

[Evasporque]

1. When I was little and learned about our solar system...

I simply assumed all the other stars in the galaxy had planets too....

I guess my childhood assumption has been proven correct. Science is funny sometimes...I think everyone assumed that we had gobs of planets ad that it was more likely than not that planets circled other stars and planets circled other planets...but until we could prove it...scientifically it was just an assumption.

On a related note:

Good thing that the pending zombie apocalypse and alien invasion has been well documented by Hollywood....I am prepared for the future.

[HopeHoops]

2. Well the science is bunk. God created Earth as the center of the universe.

There are no other planets than our own and they're just there to test our faith, like the dinosaur bones. Nothing is more than 6,000 years old.




Sorry, I just can't resist having fun with that topic.

[JHB]

3. It was one of those things where there were a number of theories, but...

...we only had one example where we actually knew for certain. And since most stars have at lease one condition that make them different enough from the sun (partners, composition, location, age, etc.) that what applied to the sun did not necessarily apply elsewhere, it was educated guesswork.

Up until recently, the solar system was basically "anecdotal evidence".