Kepler Scientist: Earth-like planets are common in galaxy (saturn, Jupiter, life)

[eskercurve]

Kepler Scientist: 'Galaxy is Rich in Earth-Like Planets' : Discovery News

Wow, is all I have to say. If I were a bigwig at NASA, I'd be fuming that one of my scientists let the beans spill at a TED conference instead of a publication.

To give an idea of the enormity of this slip, to date, only about 450 exoplanets have been discovered and confirmed. And most of those have been large, Jupiter and Saturn type planets. Now if you watch the TED talk, about 8 minutes into the talk, there is a slide which shows over 1000 planets discovered, and about 140 of them are Earth-like in size (2 Earth radiuses or smaller).

This suggests that our planet surely isn't alone in the galaxy, and if it is common, then so might life elsewhere.

[Asheville Native]

Given even the enormity of only our galaxy, and mathematical probability based on how science thinks planets are formed, it is a mathematical certainty that there are billions of other planets, millions of which could be earth like. And our galaxy is just a run of the mill variety, one of an estimated 100 to 200 billion.

Today we now have the tools that allow us to actually see the evidence.