Astronomy

Billions of planets in the Milky Way?

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About 50 billion, to be specific. If you take the results from the Kepler Mission and do a bit of math, that’s the implication. Hundreds of millions of those planets are predicted to be in the habitable zone, too.

I’ve seen a moderate amount of hubbub about the theological implications of finding life elsewhere in the universe, especially intelligent life. I’ll likely post on this in the future, but for now I’ll just point out two things: 1) the Bible is mute on the subject; and 2) the great Christian apologist, C. S. Lewis, had no problem with the prospect of intelligent life out there. (He did, however, express concern about humankind’s likely behavior toward any alien life we might encounter. Unfortunately, he’s probably right, but I’ll keep watching Star Trek and hoping for the best anyway.)

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New instrument will aid the search for Earth-like planets

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Astronomers have known about the existence of planets around other stars since the early 1990s. Since then, over 500 confirmed extra-solar planets (or “exoplanets”) have been discovered. Most of them are gas giants like Jupiter, since these are the easiest to detect. The holy grail, as it were, of exoplanet searches is Earth-like planets in habitable zones around other stars. The habitable zone is the orbital distance from a star that would permit the presence of liquid water and Earth-like life. The Kepler mission, launched into space in 2009, has found more than 1,200 candidates for Earth-sized planets around other stars, with over 50 of these possibly in the habitable zone.

Artist concept of Kepler-10b, the first rocky planet confirmed by the Kepler mission. Credit: NASA

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