05 Nov Is There Life On…Billions of Planets??

(Paraphrasing the great David Bowie’s “Is There Life on Mars?”) Scientists using data from NASA announced yesterday that there are nearly 9 billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone that are similar to Earth’s size and in the range of their suns to support Earth-type life. The study is based on four years of looking at information from NASA’s now unusable Kepler telescope. Scientists estimate there are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. The study extrapolated from looking at 42,000 of the stars.

The closest star with an Earth-like planet? About 70 trillion miles from here. The study was limited to Earth-like stars. But there are many “red dwarfs” with planets around them that could support life and those weren’t even counted. Not to mention the billions of other galaxies in the universe. Yes, the vastness of it can overwhelm for sure. So far the group has actually identified at least 10 specific planets that meet the criteria for carbon-based life.

Of course a zillion questions. Has life actually developed elsewhere? If long ago, are they more advanced and capable of long-distance space travel? What are the implications for our planet, society, religion and politics? The US Government recently admitted the existence for the first time of “Area 51,” long believed by UFO-philes to house aliens we have captured. Previously the government denied the base’s existence. If we were to discover life elsewhere, it would be simply the biggest news story of all time. But for now, “SETI,” or the search for extra-terrestrial life, remains a fantasy limited to scary (and sometimes sweet) movies.