{"id":1060,"date":"2009-02-05T13:00:40","date_gmt":"2009-02-05T13:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/2009\/02\/05\/40000-planets-could-be-home-to-aliens\/"},"modified":"2009-02-05T13:00:40","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T13:00:40","slug":"40000-planets-could-be-home-to-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/40000-planets-could-be-home-to-aliens\/","title":{"rendered":"40,000 planets could be home to aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"

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http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/scienceandtechnology\/science\/space\/4521885\/40000-planets-could-be-home-to-aliens.html<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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40,000 planets could be home to aliens <\/h1>\n

Up to 40,000 planets could support alien life forms, scientists at the
\nUniversity of Edinburgh believe. <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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By Ben Leach
Last Updated: 1:24PM GMT 05 Feb 2009<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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40,000 planets
\ncould be home to aliens <\/span>Photo: GETTY<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Researchers have calculated that up to 37,964 worlds in our galaxy are
\nhospitable enough to be home to creatures at least as intelligent as ourselves.\n<\/p>\n

Astrophysicist Duncan Forgan created a computer programme that collated all
\nthe data on the 330 or so planets known to man and worked out what proportion
\nwould have conditions suitable for life. <\/p>\n

The estimate, which took into account factors such as temperature and
\navailability of water and minerals, was then extrapolated across the Milky Way.\n<\/p>\n

Mr Forgan believes that the life forms would not be amoeba wriggling on the
\nend of a microscope but species at least as advanced as humans. <\/p>\n

Mr Forgan, who believes it will take 300 to 400 years for us to make contact
\nwith our neighbours, said: "I believe the estimate of 361 intelligent
\ncivilisations to be the most accurate. <\/p>\n

"These would certainly be the most Earth-like civilisations but the bigger
\nfigures are certainly possible. We can't rule them out. <\/p>\n

"Most of the other planets we have looked at are older than our own \u2013 so I
\nwould expect to see more advanced civilisations than ours existing."\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}