Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Astronomer: There may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in Milky Way

worth · 02-25-2009, 12:46 PM

I highly doubt there is one planet in the habitable zone for every sun like star in the galaxy.

In any event, we will know very soon how many habitable planets there are likley to be, like within the next 3 years.

Kepler mission is going to search for earth like planets in one part of the galaxy over a period of 3 years by looking for slight deviations in the brightness of stars. When a planet passes in front of the star, it dims ever so slightly. Kepler is a very sensitive instrument that can pick this up, and by watching for 3 years, it can track the orbit to make sure it is indeed a planet orbiting a sun. If a planet were to take 3 orbits in 3 years on a sun the same same size as ours, we can deduce that this planet is of the same size as the earth and would generally lie within the habitable zone.

http://kepler.nasa.gov/

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/

Launch of the Kepler is on March 5.

02-25-2009, 12:46 PM	#11
worth Franchise Player Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Vancouver Exp:	I highly doubt there is one planet in the habitable zone for every sun like star in the galaxy. In any event, we will know very soon how many habitable planets there are likley to be, like within the next 3 years. Kepler mission is going to search for earth like planets in one part of the galaxy over a period of 3 years by looking for slight deviations in the brightness of stars. When a planet passes in front of the star, it dims ever so slightly. Kepler is a very sensitive instrument that can pick this up, and by watching for 3 years, it can track the orbit to make sure it is indeed a planet orbiting a sun. If a planet were to take 3 orbits in 3 years on a sun the same same size as ours, we can deduce that this planet is of the same size as the earth and would generally lie within the habitable zone. http://kepler.nasa.gov/ http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ Launch of the Kepler is on March 5.