More Stars have Earth-size Planets than Previously Thought says NASA’s Kepler Researchers

According to some recent data released by NASA scientists, the number of Earth-like planets orbiting stars outside of our solar system are more significant than previously believed. The data comes from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft which is managed by NASA Ames Research Center astronomers.

According to the Kepler data, roughly 17 percent of stars, other than our sun, have an Earth-sized planet in an orbit closer than Mercury. Statistically, based on the estimated 100 billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, there should be at least 17 billion Earth-sized worlds in our Galaxy alone.

The new data was revealed by Francois Fressin, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), in a press conference at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California.

According to the team’s results, 50 percent of all stars have a planet of Earth-size or larger in a close orbit. Additionally, by adding larger planets detected in wider orbits up to the orbital distance of the Earth, this number increases to 70 percent.

Researchers have indicated that as they continue to gather and review Kepler data, they will find planets in larger orbits as well. In the extended Kepler mission profile, the team indicated that they expect to report on the detection of Earth-sized planets at greater distances, including Earth-like orbits in the “habitable zone,” the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of an orbiting planet.