New study suggests over 100 billion planets inhabit our galaxy

[davidn3600]

According to a new study, there may be far more planets in our galaxy than we previously realized. The majority are likely balls of gas or planets outside a star's "habitable zone" therefore making it unlikely for life to exist there. But with so many planets out there, the mathematical probability that there is a planet like Earth out there has to be a near certainty.

http://news.yahoo.com/100-billion-alien-planets-fill-milky-way-galaxy-221353897.html

Even the size of our galaxy is unimaginable. And recent estimates suggests there are 100-200 BILLION galaxies in the known universe.

[snooper2]

1. Um, we already knew there were 200-400 billion stars in our galaxy..

So wouldn't that have pretty much been a given LOL

[Southerner]

2. It was not very long ago...

...that for the first time we could confirm there were ANY planets outside our own solar system. So no, it was not a given.

[booley]

4. we didn't really know

before we could actually see what planets were out there, we were guessing and as it turns out a lot of our guesses were wrong.

We thought planets wouldn't form around low metal stars and now we find planets around such stars.

we thought planets would have trouble forming around binary systems and now we find planets with multiple suns. I think the record is four.

until we get hard data, we are just guessing.

[mn9driver]

3. Gonna have to install seti@home again...

[longship]

5. Scientists have to be precise, but this count cannot be correct.

First, the title is inaccurate. The data comes from the Kepler Mission and includes only M Dwarfs, the small red stars that form the vast majority of the stars in our galaxy. It doesn't include larger stars, like our Sun.

Second, it does not include planets outside those detectable by Kepler, which would only include larger planets and those close to their star. So, there is heavy selection bias in the data.

Third, the current models of planet formation make it likely that several planets be made in nearly every star system. The same gravitational process that makes stars, makes planets along with them.

There has to be many hundreds of billions of planets in our galaxy just from the number of stars alone. Only the largest stars (of which there are relatively few) would likely have few or no planets.

So, although the Kepler team is trying to state only what their data actually says, it is most certainly wrong. Instead, this number should be viewed as a minimum value.

That's my take away of this.