14 DAY TRIAL // Based on data obtained with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Kepler space observatory, a team of scientists found that an army's worth of Earth-like planets are yet to be born.
What they mean is that, of the potentially habitable orbs that will come to form all throughout the universe's existence, merely a handful have so far come into being. As for the remainder, the majority will likely form after Earth is lost.
“When our Solar System was born 4.6 billion years ago, only 8% of the potentially habitable planets that will ever form in the universe existed. The bulk of those planets - 92% - have yet to be born,” NASA researchers explain.
Thus, it would seem that, at least when compared to most of the life-friendly planets the universe we know has the potential to form, Earth is, in fact, an oddly early arrival.
What's an Earth-like planet anyway?
To qualify as Earth-like, a planet must be about the same size and positioned in the so-called habitable zone of its parent star, neither too far nor too close. Thus, it has to sit in an orbit where conditions would allow water to form and pool on its surface.
Then, if the planet also happens to be a rocky one, there's an even higher chance that life forms, albeit merely primitive ones, could appear and evolve on it.
Interestingly, scientists estimate that, in our home galaxy alone, the Milky Way, there should be about 1 billion Earth-like planets. With around 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, this adds up to a whole lot of orbs similar to our cosmic home.
Again, scientists believe that these celestial bodies only account for a measly 8% of the Earth-like planets the universe has the potential to form.
“There is enough remaining material [after the big bang] to produce even more planets in the future, in the Milky Way and beyond,” says researcher Molly Peeples.
