Written by Anna Lemind, The Mind Unleashed, February 24, 2015
A research team of the Australian National University combined the data from the space telescope Kepler with the so-called Titius-Bode law, a 200 year-old hypothesis which was used to predict the orbits of Uranus and Ceres in our solar system before their actual discovery. The study was focused on 68 star systems which are known to house at least three exoplanets.
As a result of these calculations, the research team concluded that most stars in our galaxy have an average of two planets in their habitable zone, or so-called Goldilocks zone, meaning these planets are located at such a distance from their parent star that the conditions on them are favorable for the existence of liquid water and, therefore, life.
Thus, these results suggest there may be billions of habitable planets in our galaxy and a countless number of such planets in the Universe. The research team also came up with a list of 77 predicted planets in 40 star systems which have the highest probability to be detected as they transit across the faces of their parent stars.
However, it is worth noting that although there may be plenty of worlds in the universe suitable for the existence of life, it does not mean there is intelligent life similar to humans. Many scientists base this view on the argument that, if there were advanced aliens, they would have come in contact with us or we would have detected their presence.
“The ingredients for life are plentiful, and we now know that habitable environments are plentiful,” said Dr. Charley Lineweaver of the Australian National University, one of the study authors. “However, the Universe is not teeming with aliens with human-like intelligence that can build radio telescopes and space ships. Otherwise we would have seen or heard from them.”
The results of the study were published in the journal «Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomy Society».
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