Estimates by astronomersindicate that there could be more than 100 BILLION Earth-like worlds in theMilky Way that could be home to life.
Think that’s a big number? According toastronomers, there are roughly 500billion galaxies in the known universe, which means there are around50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (5×1022) habitable planets. That’s of course ifthere’s just ONE universe.
In fact, just inside our ownMilky Way Galaxy experts now believe are some 400 BILLION STARS, but thisnumber may seem small as some astrophysicists believe that stars in our galaxycould figure the TRILLION. This means that the Milky Way alone could be home tomore than 100 BILLION planets.
However, since astronomersaren’t able to see our galaxy from the outside, they can’t really know for surethe number of planets the Milky Way is home to. They can only provide estimates.
To do this, expertscalculate our galaxy’s mᴀss and calculate how much of that mᴀss is composed ofstars. Based on these calculations scientists believe our galaxy is home to atleast 400 billion stars, but as I mentioned above, this number could drasticallyrise.
There are some calculationswhich suggest that the Milky Way is home on an average between 800 billion and3.2 trillion planets, but there are some experts who believe the number couldbe as high as eight trillion.
Furthermore, if we take alook at what NASA has to say, well find out how the space agency believes thereare at least 1,500 planets located within 50 light years from Earth. Theseconclusions are based on observations taken over a period of six years by thePLANET—Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork—collaboration, founded in 1995. Thestudy concluded that there are way more Earth-sized planets than Jupiter-sizedworlds.
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