Hidden Planets May Lurk Around Half of Milky Way’s Stars, Researchers Say

After a year in which scientists have discovered eight apparent planets outside the solar system, a new analysis concludes that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Hidden planets may be lurking around half the Milky Way galaxy’s 100 billion stars, says a report in the Sept. 12 issue of Nature by researchers at Caltech and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

The researchers note that in several regions of the cosmos, half or more of very young stars show signs that they are surrounded by disks of gas and dust that look like the forerunner of the solar system. “If you look at other stars, you have evidence of enough material and enough time and the right conditions to make planetary systems,” said astronomer Steven Beckwith of the Planck Institute.