The NASA Kepler space telescope has identified at least 300 million planets in the galaxy that are potentially habitable.
Within the Milky Way, NASA has discovered 300 million habitable planets with liquid water!
In a new article updated on the NASA website, the agency’s study revealed that a number of these habitable planets — referred to as exoplanets — could be our “interstellar” neighbors. There are at least four exoplanets that could be within 30 light-years of our Sun, and the closest might be at 20 light-years.
The quest for an Earth-like, potentially liveable planet holds a unique place in the realm of space exploration. Our home planet has always been distinguished from its galactic neighbors by its vast supply of liquid water, without which the numerous terrestrial life forms could never have formed.
So, NASA considered a number of factors for a planet to be deemed potentially habitable, including the ability to support liquid water, a radius that is 0.5 and 1.5 times of the Earth’s, how rocky the planet is, the similarity of the Earth’s Sun to the planet’s star in terms of age and temperature and, finally, the amount of light given off by the star and how much the planet can absorb.
A shocking NASA finding has called into question our home’s galactic uniqueness. In this video, we show you what a remarkable discovery the space agency’s researchers uncovered within the Milky Way and what makes it so unique.