Researchers from the University of Florida, analyzing data from the Kepler and Gaia telescopes, have found that every third planet in the Milky Way may have liquid water on its surface.

For decades, scientists have been scanning the skies with increasingly precise instruments to find planets that look more or less like Earth. These may be the conditions under which the conditions for the development of life can be provided. So researchers at the University of Florida attempted to clarify the chances of discovering potentially habitable exoplanets within the Milky Way.

Sarah Ballard and Sheila Sager, a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences In their study, published in the Scientific Journal, they found that nearly a third of the planets in the galaxy may be in the ideal zone for having liquid water on their surface. In other words, every third planet in the Milky Way has a chance to do so.




The team measured the eccentricity of more than 150 planets — the degree of flatness of the ellipse that marks their orbit — to those orbiting M dwarf stars (M dwarf stars are smaller than Jupiter).

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The researchers used data from the Kepler and Gaia telescopes. The former helped determine how exoplanets move in front of their star, while Gaia measured the distance between stars in the galaxy.

After careful examination of the data, they came to the conclusion that there is a greater chance of liquid water on the surface of the planets of those stars that have several planets moving in circular orbits. However, in single-planet star systems, the planets are so affected by tides that they completely sterilize them.

Earth 2.0: when can we move to a new planet?

One-eyed green aliens have appeared looming over the surprising, futuristic apartment buildings humans have built in fantasy ever since NASA announced the discovery of a new Earth-like planet. Even though the planet is far (far away), we toyed with the idea of ​​what ifs.

According to calculations, only a third of planets may be ideally positioned to have liquid water on their surface, but that still means hundreds of millions of planets.

When the first such object was discovered remains a mystery, just as it is not known whether a person will be able to rise to the surface of such a celestial body.

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