NASA Says , Our Galaxy Holds , at Least 300 Million Potentially Habitable Planets.<br />For many years, scientists around the world have studied data from the Kepler Space Telescope.<br />Kepler spent nine years identifying <br />thousands of exoplanets in our galaxy.<br />Those scientists, who have published their findings in 'The Astronomical Journal,' .<br />think there are approximately 300 million potentially habitable planets in our galaxy alone, and "there could be many more.".<br />Though this result is far from a final value, and water on a planet's surface is only one of many factors to support life, ... , NASA researcher and lead author Steve Bryson, via statement.<br />... it's extremely exciting that we calculated these worlds are this common with such high confidence and precision, NASA researcher and lead author Steve Bryson, via statement.<br />Many factors were considered when determining <br />a planet's habitability, but for the first time, thanks to the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, .<br />scientists were able to also factor the temperature of stars similar to our sun into the equation.<br />We always knew defining habitability simply in terms of a planet's physical distance from a star, so that it's not <br />too hot or cold, left us making <br />a lot of assumptions, NASA scientist and study author Ravi Kopparapu, via statement
