The results are based on observations
taken over six years by the PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork)
collaboration, which was founded in 1995. The study concludes that there are
far more Earth-sized planets than bloated Jupiter-sized worlds. This is based
on calibrating a planetary mass function that shows the number of planets
increases for lower mass worlds. A rough estimate from this survey would point
to the existence of more than 10 billion terrestrial planets across our galaxy.
The results were published in the Jan.
12, 2012, issue of the British science journal Nature.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Kornmesser
(ESO)
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