The Milky Way galaxy, where Earth belongs, is estimated to be about 100,000 light years wide, is believed to have 40 billion planets that have potential to support life. Currently, scientists have agreed of the 1,049 orbiting planets but an infographic suggests that there could be 2,000 more.
Among those 1,049 planets, there are a dozen of planets that orbit around other stars. Each of them has the potential to support life. On the other hand, more than 2,000 candidates are on the waiting list for their follow-up observations.
The infographic created by Randall Munroe, an American webcomic author and former NASA roboticist as well as a programmer, displays more than 2,000 potentially habitable planets that are estimated by scientists to be within 60 light years from Earth.
These Earth-like planets are located in the so-called "habitable zone," also known as the "Goldilocks zone." The zone is simply a belt found around a star which has temperatures that are ideal for the pooling of liquid water into a planet's surface that will eventually support life.
Munroe used the available data to create a visual representation of the planet size and its amount of habitat potentiality.
The infographic places the Earth in the center to deliver a sense of scale. All the other planets are arranged and organized according to an estimated size.
Though it doesn't give a sense of position or distance, the xkcd image reveals that alien life may not be impossible after all. He created the infographic after being inspired by the news in November that people from Earth will be able to view the nearest habitable planet.
The findings, which were described in details in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have been based on a statistical study of observations conducted by the already discontinued Kepler space telescope of NASA.
