"Tens of Billions of Planets Out There Like Earth?" CNN.
Lendon, Brad. "Tens of Billions." CNN. Turner Broadcasting System Inc. 05 Nov 13. Web. 12 Nov 13. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/05/tech/innovation/billions-of-planets/index.html>
In the article above, there is probable cause to believe that there are billions of Earth-like planets. The closest Earth-like planet is only twelve light years away, and on November 5th could be seen with the naked eye.
Scientists found 3,000 planet candidates by means of the Kepler telescope. Quoting the article, the process went something like this, "The Kepler telescope photographed 150,000 of the 300 billion stars in the Milky Way every 30 minutes for four years. It looked for when orbiting planets passed between the camera and the star, causing a slight change in brightness of that star."
Astronomers then narrowed the number by focusing on 42,000 stars like our sun, bringing the planet numbers down to 603. Inspecting the planets further, and checking to see if they were in the "Goldilocks zone," brought the numbers closer to 10.
I believe this is a wonderful discovery for astronomers everywhere, as soon we will have the technology to travel light years in just a few seconds. Imagine having your own planet to visit, whenever you liked. Not mentioning the scientific research and experiments that could possibly be done on the planets. Possible scientific advances could be made just from one planet.
In my opinion this affects the world by bringing possible scientific advances to it. I also believe it could negatively influence the world by taking people to "mine" for precious metals/gems on other planets.
If you were interested in seeing the official NASA release, I have the link for you here. (-:
As usual, I have included a video further explaining the article.
