• Question: How many planets do you think there are outside our solar system?

    Asked by GeeDAwG-TSQD to John, Laura, Luke, Rob, Ruth on 15 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: John Fossey

      John Fossey answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Hi – billions
      But what is really interesting is if any could and do support life
      Check out the Drake equation http://www.seti.org/drakeequation

    • Photo: Robert Williams

      Robert Williams answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      If every star in our Galaxy has – at least – one planet the that is upwards of 200 billion planets in our Galaxy.
      If only a tiny fraction of those can support life then I’m guessing that there will be about 1000 Earth-like planets in our Galaxy.
      The key thing is that ‘life can exist in some pretty hostile environments – just google extremophiles – so there may be life in places we haven’t yet thought might be capable for supporting ‘life’.

    • Photo: Laura Finney

      Laura Finney answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      I don’t think I could even imagine

    • Photo: Luke Williams

      Luke Williams answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      The Drake Equation is the place to start, as John has said.

      My guess is somewhere north of quadrillions. One quadrillion is 1*10^15

      However many there are, there’s a ridiculous number of planets. Truly ridiculous.

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