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Earth twin boosts hopes of life
THE possibility of extraterrestrial life just went up with the discovery of the most Earth-like planet ever spotted outside our solar system.
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"This discovery is only one planet, but it strongly suggests that small (Earth-like) worlds might be as common as flies in the outback," Dr Shostak said.
Dr Williams said he agreed. He said an unpublished analysis showed that as many as one in three or four stars may have planets like ours.
fp is the fraction of stars that have planets around them
ne is the number of planets per star that are capable of sustaining life
Reuters
"This is an important breakthrough in the quest to answer the question 'Are we alone?'" said Michael Turner of the National Science Foundation.