More Big Numbers

Yesterday's post initiated talk about big numbers. In June, astronomers said that space is littered with hundreds of billions of planets that have been ejected from the planetary systems that gave them birth and either are going their own lonely ways or are only distantly bound to stars at least as ten times as far away as the Sun is from the Earth.

There are two planets that are said to be the size of Jupiter and, for each of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, according to measurements and calculations undertaken by an international group of astronomers.

Before this research, it was thought that only about 10 or 20% of stars harbored Jupiter-mass planets. Now it seems as if the planets outnumber the stars.

The numbers are truly astonishing. Kind of makes one thinking differently when looking up to the skies.