100 billion Earths in Milky Way galaxy! Could it be?

William Atkins
Sunday, 22 February 2009 21:19

Science - Space

Astronomers are just beginning to discovery exosolar planets (exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars other than the Sun).

Over the next few years, we should see a multitude of new exoplanets discovered.

As of February 2009, 340 exoplanets have been discovered, according to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia.

Likely, in the next few years, we’ll discover thousands of more exoplanets, especially with new and more powerful telescopes orbiting out in space.

Additional information about exoplanets is found on the website of California & Carnegie Planet Search (CCPS): http://exoplanets.org/.

Space.com has an interesting article entitled “Top 10 Most Intriguing Exosolar Planets.”

Searching for extrasolar planets is difficult at best. Astronomers have compared it to "... trying to see the difference between the feeble light from a candle next to a lighthouse from a point 1000 kilometres away." [Darwin Mission website]