From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Mon Jul 01 2002 - 10:49:59 MDT
30 billion earths, my ass. I suspect that when the astronomers say 30
billions earths, they do not mean 30 billion planets with life, but 30
billion terestrial-sized worlds. Venus is such a world, and perhaps, some of
Jupiter's moons. But earth-sized worlds with a oxy-nitrogen atmosphere, and
carn-water life?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2078000/2078507.stm
>>Astronomers say there could be billions of Earths in our galaxy, the Milky
Way.
Their assessment comes after the discovery of the 100th exoplanet - a planet
that circles a star other than our own. The latest find is a gas giant, just
like all the other exoplanets so far detected, and orbits a Sun-like star 293
light-years away. <<
>>...Virtually all the stars out to about 100 light-years distant have been
surveyed. Of these 1,000 or so stars, about 10% have been found to possess
planetary systems. So, with about 300 billion stars in our galaxy, there
could be about 30 billion planetary systems in the Milky Way alone; and a
great many of these systems are very likely to include Earth-like worlds, say
researchers....<<
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