NASA Astronomers: Billions of Planets in Our Galaxy

obligatory artist’s conception, credit: NASA/ESA/A. Schaller

Sixteen potential planets have been discovered near the center of galaxy, of which seven are likely and nine are still uncertain. The bodies are the farthest detected thus far, the largest number found in a single observation, and the fastest orbiting – five of the potential planets orbit their stars in one Earth day or less.

We had [already] found all of these planets relatively near the sun. We wanted to know, Are they there all across the galaxy? (…)

The answer was yes, they are there, even at the center of the galaxy. (…) This allows us to say now with a very high degree of confidence that there are literally billions of planets in our galaxy.

Mario Livio, astronomer, Hubble project

ARTICLE [“New Planet ‘Bonanza’ Discovered (…)] (National Geographic) ARTICLE ["Hubble spies more extra-solar planets”] (Register)