MILKY WAY GALAXY
Habitable Planets in Milky Way Galaxy
The number of earth-like habitable planets may be as high as 40 billions, or nearly one-fifth of Milky Way's 200 billion stars may have planets in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, or habitable zone, with the orbital distance from the star to have ingredients for water on the surface. The research was based on a three-year study that used data from Kepler spacecraft. The research, co-authored by Professor Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkley, and his graduate student Erik Petigura, was published on November 4, 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
In-Sync Solar System Found in Our Galaxy
Astronomers reported on November 29, 2023 that they had found a star with six "in-sync" planets about 100 light years away in the Constellation Coma Berenices, according to November 30, 2023, edition of The Dallas Morning News. Two satellites--NASA's Tess and European Space Agency's Cheops--have found the star, known as HD 110067, and six planets which are revolving in perfect synchronous symphony, or in-sync, around the star. They range nine to 54 days to circle around the star. There may be more planets circling around the star, but they are yet to be definitively identified by the astronomers. The six planets found so far are made of gas, but the cores are made up of rock, ice or metals.
OTHER GALAXIES
Euclid Sends Picture of Three Cosmic Regions of Faraway Galaxies
European Space Agency's Euclid Space Observatory blasted off the Florida coast in 2023 on a rocket. The mission of the Euclid Observatory is, among others, to explore dark energy and dark matter, which consist of the majority of our ever-expanding Universe.
European Space Agency on March 19, 2025 released titillating visuals that Euclid has sent from its constantly enriching cosmic atlas. The pictures include those of three cosmic regions of several galaxies, billions of lightyears away, with the central NGC 6505 galaxy positioned at the heart of one picture that The Dallas Morning News has published in its March 24, 2025, edition.
