According to foreign media reports, a new study based on data from the Kepler Space Telescope estimates that there may be as many as 300 million potentially habitable planets in our galaxy. Some of them may be very close to us, and some may be less than 30 light years away from the sun. The results of this research were published in the recent Astronomy Journal, and it was a collaboration between NASA, the SETI Institute, and other scientists around the world.
”This is the first time that all the scattered information has been put together to provide a reliable measurement of the number of planets that may be habitable in the galaxy.” One of the authors of the paper, an exoplanet researcher at the Institute of Extraterrestrial Civilization Project, Kepler Said Jeff Coughlin, director of the science office.
The Drake equation details the factors to be considered when estimating the potential number of technologically advanced civilizations that may be detected in the galaxy. The Drake equation is also often regarded as a “roadmap” for astrobiology, and it has provided help in searching for extraterrestrial civilizations.
In order to make a reasonable estimate, the researchers set their sights on rocky exoplanets similar in size to the Earth. They also calculated so-called sun-like stars, which are about the same age as our sun and about the same temperature. In addition, the researchers also calculated whether the planet has the necessary conditions to support liquid water.
Previous estimates of the number of potentially habitable exoplanets in the Milky Way were largely based on the distance between the planet and the host star. However, in this latest study, the researchers also considered how much light the planet can receive. In order to achieve this research goal, the research team not only used data from the Kepler Space Telescope, but also introduced data on how much energy the planets emit from the European Space Agency and the Gaia satellite.
As of 2018, the Kepler Space Telescope, which has stopped data collection, has confirmed more than 2,800 exoplanets, and there are thousands of candidate planets to be confirmed. So far, researchers have discovered hundreds of planets in the habitable zone of stars in the Kepler Space Telescope data. Finding all 300 million habitable planets will be a long journey.
