Science
Life-supporting Earth-like planets could be common | Life-supporting Earth-like planets could be common |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Tuesday, 19 February 2008 | |
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American astronomer Michael R. Meyer and his team of scientists studied over three hundred stars with Sun-like masses, and concluded that rocky planets like Earth could be orbiting about at least half of the Sun-like stars found in the Milky Way galaxy—and supporting intelligent and/or primitive life.
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Science DiscussionsThe research study by Meyer’s team was announced at the Sunday, February 17, 2008 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Held in Boston, Massachusetts, the meeting allowed the research members to declare that the potential of life within the other planets of our solar system is likely.
In fact, Meyer and fellow collaborators found that between 20 and 60 percent of the Sun-like stars used in their study—309 stars in total—contain rocky planets like those of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars in the solar system. Meyer’s team, also, does not discount smaller objects, such as dwarf planet Pluto, from containing life. With hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dwarf planet like Pluto not even known yet, the solar system may contain life on one or more of these small bodies.
The paper (“Evolution of Mid-Infrared Excess around Sun-like Stars: Constraints on Models of Terrestrial Planet Formation”) containing the conclusions of the study appears in the February 1, 2008 edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters. |
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