how many known planets are there

[TryingNewThing]

will 5-8% be gay?

haha possibly...depend on whether there's any attractive homo sapien males on there. They might call'em something else but hey, as long as they're intelligent, shows emotions/compassion, and cuddly, there's a chance! Never say never

[Hayden]

I took an astronomy class recently and we talked about estimating the number of planets in the universe. There are around 200 billion stars in our galaxy and also about 200 billion galaxies in the universe (which we know of, of course). And using our own solar system as an average example, we can estimate that for each star there are about eight planets. Soooooo.... our best guess for how many planets are really out there would be

200,000,000,000 x 200,000,000,000 x 8 = a shit load.

Me? I think the universe is just a never ending loopy donut, so I think the answer for "how many _____s are there?" is always infinite.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

There have been hundreds of exo-solar planets discovered.

I think that in itself is a modern wonder. To think that for centuries of astronomy we couldn't detect worlds around other stars and now suddenly we are finding the everywhere we look...

As a kid we were cautioned that planets may be as rare as diamond, since we didn't (and still don't) know the real causes for planetary formation. While we guessed that nearly every star would have planets, there was always that lack of proof to shed doubt.

Now we know that planets around stars is the 'normal' way the universe works, which gives us a much higher probability of discovering a new race of being we can turn our small talent for war on.

I might live to see the day we discover some other species we can collectively hate so we can move on from killing each other.

(Pessimistic or realistic view there?)

[Bookworm]

Wow, I had no idea so many had been discovered! I thought we'd only identified about 10-20 gas giants! It's good news they are gradually discovering more and more Earth sized planets. I think they are currently trying to detect ways of identifying planets that hold large bodies/quantities of water, as this is the key to life. Interesting times! mile:

[monk]

Why was Pluto downgraded, and what is it now if it's not a planet? :confused:

[Bookworm]

what is it now if it's not a planet? :confused:

It was re-classified as a 'dwarf planet'.

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/sc...rf-planet/

[monk]

It was re-classified as a 'dwarf planet'.

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/sc...rf-planet/

Thanks, Bookworm.