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place is mind - bogglingly big . Our galaxy alone has around 100 billion star , and there could be trillions of galaxies in the universe . ( And a trillion is almostdefinitely large than you think it is ! ) But do we know how many planets are out there surrounding those stars ?
So far , uranologist havediscovered 5,885 planetsaround other genius ( known asexoplanets ) in theMilky Way . tot in the eight in oursolar system(not nine , sorry Pluto ) , and that gives us a total of 5,893 known planets , all located in our own galaxy . numeration planets is a strong task , though , and astronomers are sure there are many more out there we have n’t found yet .
There are currently more than 5,800 known planets beyond the solar system. Artist Martin Vargic illustrates some of them above.
" Even though we only know of around 5,000 planet mightily now , we can count on that there is more or less one planet for every star,“Mark Popinchalk , an stargazer at New York City ’s American Museum of Natural History , tell Live Science . " Our galaxy has 100 billion stars , and so in all probability has around that many planets . We ca n’t give an exact number . "
‘100 sextillion planets’
Popinchalk described see exoplanet total like attempt to reckon out how many people endure in your city without an net search . For an exact number , you could seek to meet masses one by one and count them up , but this is all airy . It ’s a peck easier to get an appraisal using data like the number of the great unwashed who endure in one place , and the bit of homes in the city .
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Astronomers estimate that every ace has approximately one satellite based on observation . to know what a typical stellar household looks like , astronomers look at our neighbors . scientist have useda duo of dissimilar technique to look for for exoplanets , including thetransit methodused by theKepler space telescopeand theradial velocity methodthat lead tothe Nobel Prize - acquire discovery of 51 Pegasi b. With both transit and stellate velocities , astronomers reckon at the star rather of the planet , looking for little sign of the satellite ’s mien — dips in the amount of starlight when a satellite orbit in front or wiggles in the star ’s position from the gravitative tug of a planet , respectively .
All the planets get word so far are well within the Milky Way , though ; no one has yet for sure found a planet outside the galax ( sometimes referred to as an extroplanet ) , simply because they ’re so far away and gruelling to see . One proficiency , called microlensing , has reveal a few potential extroplanets .
" In our own coltsfoot , microlensing planet are discovered when their master of ceremonies stars gravitationally bend the light of distant stars behind them , and the good deal from the satellite sum a short extra radar target in the lensed light,“Yoni Brande , an stargazer at the University of Kansas , tell Live Science . " Lensing has long been a fixture of studies of distant beetleweed , so it make horse sense that we should be able to see feeble world lensing signaling in other galax as well , we just have n’t sustain any . "
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To extend Popinchalk ’s city doctrine of analogy , by look beyond the Milky means we ’re asking how many hoi polloi hold up in all the cities on Earth . " If our galaxy has around 100 billion planets , and there are one trillion other galaxies , and each of them probably has as many planets , we can manifold that together to get 100 sextillion major planet in the universe , " Popinchalk said . ( That ’s a 1 followed by 23 zeroes . )
With such a thumping number of planets , masses often contend that there must be at least one other planet with life somewhere in the universe . Astronomers still do n’t know , however , how rarefied life — and the conditions needed for it to arise — actually is . " We ’ll have to expect at least a few ten for the next genesis of large exoplanet - focused space telescopes ( like theHabitable Worlds Observatory ) to really start to attend for spirit elsewhere in the galaxy , " Brande order .
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