Published on April 6, 2017
Music by Zero Project. The hunt for planets beyond our solar system has reached a fever pitch. With some 500 planets revealed by ground telescopes, now, the ultimate planet finder, the Kepler space telescope, has released a tsunami of data. Among over a thousand new planet prospects are 200 multi-planet solar systems and 58 worlds in life-friendly orbits. They’re all within a narrow window on the sky the size of your hand. That’s why this may be the tip of the iceberg in a galaxy that’s literally crawling with planets. Scientists are now beginning to envision what these worlds are like, with atmospheres, oceans, geological history. In the process, they are redefining what a planet might need to spawn life.
