Planet Population is Plentiful [720p]

This artists's cartoon view gives an impression of how common planets are around the stars in the Milky Way. The planets, their orbits and their host stars are all vastly magnified compared to their real separations. A six-year search that surveyed millions of stars using the microlensing technique concluded that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception. The average number of planets per star is greater than one.

"We used to think that the Earth might be unique in our galaxy. But now it seems that there are literally billions of planets with masses similar to Earth orbiting stars in the Milky Way," concludes Daniel Kubas, co-lead author of a paper published January 12, 2012.

credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

source: http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1204a/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ESO
• exoplanets
• extrasolar planets
• Milky Way
• planets
• solar systems
• stars
• space
• astronomy
• space exploration
• cosmos
• universe

[Donsknotts]

Does this add to the multiverse theory or am I grossly misunderstanding it's mechanics.

[YMBatal]

It's amazing to witness history in the making :)

[zassounotsukushi]

Wow, those are really really.... really long orbits in comparison to the interstellar spacing!

And I thought that the majority of systems were binary pairs. Are those included in the statement "The average number of planets per star is greater than one"