William Atkins
Sunday, 22 February 2009 21:19
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 4
Thus, based on this premise, Boss says that there could be one billion trillion planets in the Universe that could sustain life.
Some astronomers estimate that the observable universe contains from 30 to 70 billion trillion stars.
Consequently, based on the Boss premise, about one in 30 to 70 stars are “Sun-like stars.”
Needless to say, these figures are very rough estimates at best. We will only be able to more precisely calculate these figures with more investigations and explorations into exoplanets; that is, planets that orbit stars other than the Sun.
Such exoplanet programs are being worked at this very moment.
Some of these actual or proposed missions include:
Kepler Mission (by the United States, to be launched in 2009),
PEGASE (pfd file) (France, 2010-2012),
Space Interferometry Mission (also called SIM PlanetQuest) (U.S.A., 2015-2016),
New Worlds Mission (United States, 2013),
Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) (U.S.A., no estimate available), and
Darwin (European Space Agency, 2015).
Page three provides quotes from Dr. Boss on these possibilities and, in addition, a comment about UFOs on Earth.
