Earth among earliest habitable planets, study finds
Earth may be one of the first habitable planets in the universe, a new study suggests. Scientists believe when the solar system came into being 4.6 billion years ago, only 8% of the potentially life-supporting worlds that are destined to exist had formed. The vast majority are yet to be born and many will not appear until after the sun burns itself out in another six billion years. Astronomers came to the conclusion after analysing data from the Hubble and Kepler space telescopes. Lead researcher Dr Peter Behroozi, from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, US, said: "Our main motivation was understanding the Earth's place in the context of the rest of the universe. Compared to all the planets that will ever form in the universe, the Earth is actually quite early." Galaxy observations show that 10 billion years ago stars were forming rapidly, but the process used only a fraction of all the hydrogen and helium in the universe. Today, stars are being born at a much slower rate and, with the amount of raw material still available are likely to continue being created for a very long time to come.
Earth may be one of the first habitable planets in the universe, a new study suggests. Scientists believe when the solar system came into being 4.6 billion years ago, only 8% of the potentially life-supporting worlds that are destined to exist had formed. The vast majority are yet to be born and many will not appear until after the sun burns itself out in another six billion years. Astronomers came to the conclusion after analysing data from the Hubble and Kepler space telescopes. Lead researcher Dr Peter Behroozi, from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, US, said: "Our main motivation was understanding the Earth's place in the context of the rest of the universe. Compared to all the planets that will ever form in the universe, the Earth is actually quite early." Galaxy observations show that 10 billion years ago stars were forming rapidly, but the process used only a fraction of all the hydrogen and helium in the universe. Today, stars are being born at a much slower rate and, with the amount of raw material still available are likely to continue being created for a very long time to come.