How Often Can We Find Earth-Like Planets Around Sun-Like Stars?

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – Scientists have been now able to provide the most accurate estimate of the frequency of Earth-like planets that are similar to Earth in size and in distance from their host star similar to our Sun.

They based their study on discoveries of thousands of planets that have been discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which documented transit events.

“Kepler discovered planets with a wide variety of sizes, compositions and orbits,” Eric B. Ford, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and one of the leaders of the research team, said in a press release.

“We want to use those discoveries to improve our understanding of planet formation and to plan future missions to search for planets that might be habitable. However, simply counting exoplanets of a given size or orbital distance is misleading, since it’s much harder to find small planets far from their star than to find large planets close to their star.”

The researchers designed a new method to infer the occurrence rate of planets across a wide range of sizes and orbital distances.

Scientists focus on searching for biomarkers — molecules indicative of life — in the atmospheres of roughly Earth-size planets that orbit in the ‘habitable-zone’ of Sun-like stars,” said Ford.

“The habitable zone is a range of orbital distances at which the planets could support liquid water on their surfaces, Ford said.

“Searching for evidence of life on Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars will require a large new space mission.”

Based on their simulations, the researchers estimate that planets very close to Earth in size, from three-quarters to one-and-a-half times the size of earth, with orbital periods ranging from 237 to 500 days, occur around approximately one in four stars. Importantly, their model quantifies the uncertainty in that estimate.

“Knowing how often we should expect to find planets of a given size and orbital period is extremely helpful for optimize surveys for exoplanets and the design of upcoming space missions to maximize their chance of success,” Ford added.

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Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff