Harvard University astronomers announced Wednesday that there may be as many as 4.5 billion Earth-Like planets that exist in the Milky Way.
This is a much larger than astronomers previously expected. The researchers also found that the nearest of such planets is only 13 light years away which make for approximately 77 trillion miles.
"We thought we would have to search vast distances to find an Earth-like planet," said Harvard astronomer and lead author Courtney Dressing in a statement. "Now we realize another Earth is probably in our own backyard, waiting to be spotted."
The study included analyzing data from NASA's Kepler space telescope to study red dwarf stars. Researchers found that 6 percent of the 75 billion red dwarfs had conditions favorable for harboring life.
"We now know the rate of occurrence of habitable planets around the most common stars in our galaxy," said co-author David Charbonneau (CfA). "That rate implies that it will be significantly easier to search for life beyond the solar system than we previously thought."
It was also discovered that owing to most red dwarfs being long lived and slow burning, most of these earth like planets could be older than Earth itself. This, in turn, could result in the existence of civilization way beyond the first civilization known to man on earth.
"We might find an Earth that's 10 billion years old," Charbonneau said.
