SPACE.com — Water Worlds: Astronomer Predicts Many Earth-Like Planets
To most common terrestrial dwellers, there’s no place like Earth. But new simulations show that many Earth-like planets might exist outside of our solar system.
Through computer simulations scientists examined the formation and evolution of giant planet systems recently detected outside the Earth’s solar system. Their results revealed that more than a third of them might contain planets that could potentially support life and could even be covered with deep oceans.
The study focuses on a type of planetary system unlike our solar system that contains gas giants known as “hot Jupiters” orbiting extremely close to their parent stars—even closer than Mercury to our sun, said lead author Sean Raymond, a researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder. [Read on]