The Milky Way contains at least 300 MILLION habitable planets, according to NASA

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There are about 300 million planets that exist outside of our solar system but in the Milky Way that could potentially harbor life, according to NASA.

Four of them are just 30 light years from Earth, the closest being just 20 light years away, the space agency says.

The researchers arrived at the figure of 300 million based on the conservative assumption that seven percent of Sun-like stars have a habitable world orbiting them.

However, they warn that the actual figure could reach 75%, which would drop the figure from 300 million to around three billion.

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In the photo, Kepler-186f, the first Earth-sized planet validated to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star

In the photo, Kepler-186f, the first Earth-sized planet validated to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star

Data from Kepler, the deep space telescope that was pulled in October 2018 when it finally ran out of fuel, led to the discovery.

Kepler’s mission was originally scheduled to last 3.5 years, but rigorous use of fuel kept it operational for 9 years, 7 months and 23 days.

Its mission was to travel the sky, from near and far, in search of planets orbiting other stars.

Kepler has discovered more than 2,600 worlds beyond our solar system and has statistically proven that the Milky Way is home to more planets than stars.

It consisted of 42 image sensors called charged coupled devices (CCDs) and each had a resolution of 1024 by 2200 pixels.

Kepler’s data is so vast that astronomers are still navigating its reserves to this day and publishing new findings.

This is exactly what NASA astronomers have done, with their work recently published in The Astronomical Journal.

“ Kepler once told us there are billions of planets, but now we know a good chunk of those planets could be rocky and habitable, ” said lead author Steve Bryson, a researcher at the Center of NASA Ames research in California.

“ While this result is far from a final value and the water on a planet’s surface is only one of the many factors that support life, it is extremely exciting that we have calculated that these worlds are also shared with such confidence and precision. ”

The researchers set certain parameters for the data, restricting their search scope to planets similar in size to Earth, half the diameter of 50%.

By doing this, it ensures that the observed planets will be rocky as these are the much larger planets that tend to be gaseous, just like Jupiter and Saturn in the solar system.

Kepler's mission was originally scheduled to last 3.5 years, but rigorous use of fuel kept it operational for 9 years, 7 months and 23 days. Its mission was to roam the sky, both near and far, in search of planets orbiting other stars. In the photo, the telescope before its launch

Kepler’s mission was originally scheduled to last 3.5 years, but rigorous use of fuel kept it operational for 9 years, 7 months and 23 days. Its mission was to roam the sky, both near and far, in search of planets orbiting other stars. In the photo, the telescope before its launch

There are about 300 million planets that exist outside of our solar system but in the Milky Way that could potentially harbor life. Four of them are just 30 light years from Earth, according to a NASA study, the closest are just 20 light years away, NASA claims.

There are about 300 million planets that exist outside of our solar system but in the Milky Way that could potentially harbor life. Four of them are just 30 light years from Earth, according to a NASA study, the closest are just 20 light years away, NASA claims.

They went in search of the holy grail of astronomical research, in search of the “Goldilock Zone” where life can flourish.

A prerequisite for this is for the star to resemble the Sun, so the researchers looked for distant stars that resemble it in age and temperature.

But this simplified approach does not guarantee that life will prosper and makes many assumptions, the researchers admit, so astronomers have crossed this data with that from ESA’s Gaia telescope.

Gaia measures the energy production of individual stars, which provides valuable information as to whether it emits too much harmful radiation or too little thermal energy for water to survive a liquid, for example.

“ We have always known how to define habitability simply in terms of the physical distance of a planet from a star, so that it is neither too hot nor too cold, left us to make many assumptions ”, a said Ravi Kopparapu, journalist and NASA scientist.

“Gaia’s star data has allowed us to look at these planets and their stars in an entirely new way.

Gaia allowed astronomers to see how a planet’s atmosphere would impact its habitability.

This analysis led to the figure of 50 percent of Sun-like stars having habitable planets.

A conservative estimate goes as low as seven percent, while an optimistic estimate can go as high as 75 percent.

Kepler was the first spacecraft to study the planets in our own galaxy, and over the years his observations have confirmed the existence of more than 2,600 exoplanets - many of which could be key targets in the search for alien life.

Kepler was the first spacecraft to study the planets in our own galaxy, and over the years his observations have confirmed the existence of more than 2,600 exoplanets – many of which could be key targets in the search for alien life.

RIP Kepler: NASA “ withdraws ” planet-hunting spacecraft

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft died in orbit in October 2018 after a historic nine-year mission that opened our eyes to the existence of planets beyond our solar system.

The space agency revealed the grim news during a teleconference this afternoon after the veteran spacecraft went into “ sleep mode ” earlier this month.

The aging telescope was expected to run out of fuel in the near future – but exactly when that would happen was unclear.

According to NASA, the now retired spacecraft is in a “safe orbit, far from Earth”.

Kepler, which launched in 2009, has come to be known by his team as “ the little spacecraft that could, ” going above and beyond NASA expectations.

It was the first spacecraft to study the planets in our own galaxy, and over the years its observations have confirmed the existence of over 2,600 exoplanets – many of which could be key targets in the search for alien life.

Before Kepler, we had never found planets outside our solar system.

“ As NASA’s first planet-hunting mission, Kepler far exceeded our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the Solar System and beyond, ” said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of the Scientific Missions Directorate of NASA in Washington.

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