According to Australian scientists, most stars in the Milky Way have at least two Earth-like bodies orbiting them. These numbers indicate that there could be hundreds of billions more planets similar to ours in the Galaxy. The study leaders Charley Lineweaver, an Associate Professor, and Tim Bovaird, a Ph.D. student, were both at The Australian National University. They applied a 200-year old idea to thousands of exoplanets that have been discovered by Kepler’s space telescope. Exoplanets refer to those beyond our solar system. The average star in our Milky Way contains two planets located in the Goldilocks Zone, which is roughly the number of stars. They are located at an ideal distance from the sun, which allows for liquid water to be possible and surface temperatures. These are two crucial factors that allow life as we know it. Habitable Zone or the Goldilocks Zone means that the conditions on the surface of the planet are “just right” for liquid water to exist. This is why we believe there might be life. Image source: Eurekalert. Associate Professor Lineweaver works in the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Research School of Earth Sciences. He said that “the ingredients for life” are abundant and they now know that there are plenty of habitable environments. The universe does not have aliens capable of building spaceships or radio telescopes, but it isn’t crowded with them. We would not have heard or seen them otherwise.” Intelligent civilisations may evolve but then self-destruct.” Kepler’s space telescope has a tendency to locate planets too close to their stars. They are too hot for liquid waters. The Kepler results were used to extrapolate the scientists’ findings using a theory that helped predict Uranus’ existence. Charley Lineweaver, Associate Professor. Image: Stuart Hay, ANU. Associate Professor Lineweaver stated that the Titius–Bode relationship and Kepler data were used to determine the positions of the planets Kepler cannot see. In January NASA’s Kepler space telescope discovered eight planets in the Goldilocks area orbiting sunlike stars. Kepler -442b, and Kepler -438b were two of the planets that looked more Earthlike than any other discovered outside our solar system.
