Every star has planets, new study suggests

[Still Waters]

Every star twinkling in the night sky plays host to at least one planet, a new study suggests.

That implies there are some 10 billion Earth-sized planets in our galaxy.

Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, an international team found a handful of exoplanets that imply the existence of billions more.

Read more...

[Timothy]

IMO I doubt every star has a planet like those in our solar system.

If they use some loose definition of 'planet' it might well be true.

[Space Commander Travis]

IMO I doubt every star has a planet like those in our solar system.

If they use some loose definition of 'planet' it might well be true.

What sort of definition did you have in mind? There's a whole range of kinds of Planet in our own solar system; small rocky ones, gas giants, ones that are made of liquid methane & so on.

[spud the mackem]

If for example 1 in 10000 planets could sustain life,there would be a lot of life about,but we are hardly likely to hear from them as the distances are so vast,and it would depend on how advanced they are.We are still babies in this field as radio has just been discovered about 100 years ago.

[Space Commander Travis]

Is there any agreed theory on how the star Sol acquired as many planets as it did? And does anyone try to insist that it must be very special and unique, and if they do, what grounds do they base this assertion on? Is it not quite likely based on mere probability alone that similar systems might actually have developed around the great majority of Stars?

[David Thomson]

It should be a no-brainer that all stars have planets. Stars form either from remnants of supernovas or from accretion of dust. Of course there will be planetary bodies forming in orbits around stars. The anomaly would be the absence of planets.

[Timothy]

What sort of definition did you have in mind? There's a whole range of kinds of Planet in our own solar system; small rocky ones, gas giants, ones that are made of liquid methane & so on.

Comets/ asteroids/dwarf planets etc. Those other than what make up the 'obvious' planets in our solar system.

[marcos anthony toledo]

So now it is official our solar system is not rare. All stars seem to have planets increasing the chances of finding habitable planets. Get news for our chances of finding intelligent life what a wonderful time to be alive.

[Xanthurion2]

if that is true then there can be no doubt we are not alone in the universe

[Harte]

This is an absolutely mind-blowing dfiscovery!

That is, obviously, people have long hypothesized the "what if" concerning how many planets might be out there, but this is very close to confirmation of our wildest dreams.

That being said:

It should be a no-brainer that all stars have planets. Stars form either from remnants of supernovas or from accretion of dust. Of course there will be planetary bodies forming in orbits around stars. The anomaly would be the absence of planets.

It should be pointed out that, last I checked, no solution to the "three body problem" has been found. This problem is why it wasn't a "no-brainer."

The three-body problem is the apparent inability of our mathematics to describe stable orbits for anything other than a single massive body with orbiting bodies whose mass is inconsequential with respect to the larger body.

I don't know about these days, but (again, last I checked) it was once thought that the majority of star systems in the galaxy contained more than one star. No solution had been found for even a single stable orbit in a binary system (three-bodies.)

My knowledge of this dates to the 1970's, so maybe this has been resolved.

But the above is the reason it wasn't exactly a "no brainer" that every system likely has planets.

Harte

[Englishgent]

It should be a no-brainer that all stars have planets. Stars form either from remnants of supernovas or from accretion of dust. Of course there will be planetary bodies forming in orbits around stars. The anomaly would be the absence of planets.

I agree

[d e v i c e]

Of course the universe is full of life. People deduced that a long time ago. And still others have seen and even met these 'others'. But I guess some people still need their video footage and photos [which they will still doubt].

[badeskov]

Of course the universe is full of life. People deduced that a long time ago. And still others have seen and even met these 'others'. But I guess some people still need their video footage and photos [which they will still doubt].

What people might that be? Certainly not scientists. They have deduced they the Universe might be full of life - or might not. We just don't know.

These 'others' certainly require evidence. Just a little more than a hundred years ago people believed in elves, gnomes and fairies. We even had photographic 'evidence' of the latter. So yeah, you are damn right we need evidence. Irrefutable evidence, not the questionable stuff that can be interpreted in numerous ways or not at all (not to mention all the fake stuff).

Cheers,

Badeskov

[kaptn k]

I've thought for a long time that all stars had planets revolving them. I also believe that the fact that there are billions(?) of stars in our universe that our Earth can't possibly be the only planet sustaing intelligent life. The odds are in favor of other life. Will we today ever meet them, most likely not. Will humans ever meet them (if we haven't already) only time will tell. Well that, and if we don't exstinguish our species with nuclear war before it could happen.