Skip to content

Ten Billion Earths

At least one in ten stars are orbited by an Earth-sized planet, according to data taken by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. 
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

At least one in ten stars are orbited by an Earth-sized planet, according to data taken by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. So that means the Milky Way Galaxy has more than ten billion planets that are equivalent to Earth.

Illustration Credit: NASA, F. Fressin (Harvard CfA)

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next
Find Your Identity
Guest post by Jill Janes.  I believe that searching for one’s identity is human nature.  Though many recall periods of soul searching and identity crisis in adolescence, I think that […]