Earth is the one planet we know of that is well suited for life. Of course this is a sample size of only one, and it’s a biased sample, since we’re it. This means we should take any speculation on the existence of life on other planets with a grain of salt, but there are some things we can at least tentatively speculate on.
Billions and Billions
There are likely 500 billion galaxies in the observable universe, so there may be a sextillion planets similar to ours. Sextillion as in 1 with 21 zeros after it.
All These Worlds
This post is about the atmospheric makeup of four planets orbiting a star 130 light years away. Think on that for a bit. We’re now able to study the atmospheres of extra-solar planets. What’s even more amazing is the work was done from a ground-based telescope.
Vast Worlds
The Kepler mission has announced the addition of 715 new exoplanets to the official list of known worlds. This almost doubles the number of confirmed planets to the list.
Wibbly Wobbly
A new planet orbits two stars instead of one. Because its orbit is shifted relative to the stars, the planet has some wibbly-wobbly motion.
Two For One
When planets were found orbiting binary stars, they were a bit of a mystery, because such circumbinary planets would have a difficult time forming. We are now beginning to understand the complex gravitational dynamics that allows them to form.
Devil in the Details
Last year, news came of five planets discovered around the star Tau Ceti. Unfortunately, the way the story is told, it would seem we’ve not only found these planets, but have confirmed that two are habitable. In reality things aren’t so clear.
One in a Billion
We now have more than a thousand confirmed exoplanets, many of which are from Kepler data. This means we have enough planets to run a bit of statistics, and it leads to some interesting results.
Dying World
The Kepler telescope has led to the discovery of more than a thousand exoplanets. But there are still several thousand “candidate” planets. An exoplanet can be in candidate status for various reasons. The data may not be solid enough to confirm the planet, or what looks like a planet doesn’t seem to have a stable orbit, or half a dozen other reasons. Sometimes the data might look good, but it’s just…strange.