A new study suggests that rocky planets, possibly suitable to life, may be more common in our galaxy than previously thought. More than half of the Sun-like stars of the Milky Way could contain planetary systems similar to the Solar System.
Researchers using NASA's Spitzer space telescope found that some younger Sun-like stars have rings of dust around them which are believed to develop over eons into planetary systems. Our own system may have more distant planets as well, they said.
Those distant, frozen Solar planets may even approach the size of Earth, researchers said. NASA will launch the Kepler mission next year to discover more about distant planets.
