Frank Drake was right. Nearly half a century ago, the American astronomer postulated that, based on pure statistical probability, the Milky Way could be teeming with Earth-like planets. Now observations of formerly sunlike stars called white dwarfs suggest that the overwhelming majority of them once harbored at least one rocky world. And because sunlike stars could account for up to half of the Milky Way’s population of several hundred billion suns, that means hundreds or even thousands of civilizations might inhabit our galaxy. The question of how many rocky worlds exist in the galaxy has perplexed astronomers for the better part of a century. Read the full article
credit foto: csa.com

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