According to a study done in 2012 and published in Nature, there may be as many as one planet, or more, per star in the Milky Way galaxy.Abdul.119 said:
We find thatof stars host Jupiter-mass planets (0.3–10 MJ, where MJ = 318 M
and M
is Earth’s mass). Cool Neptunes (10–30 M
) and super-Earths (5–10 M
) are even more common: their respective abundances per star are
and
. We conclude that stars are orbited by planets as a rule, rather than the exception.
The average number of planets per star is the average number of planets that have been discovered orbiting a single star. This includes all types of planets, such as gas giants, terrestrial planets, and dwarf planets.
The average number of planets per star is calculated by dividing the total number of confirmed exoplanets by the total number of stars that have been observed. This calculation takes into account all known exoplanets and their host stars.
The range of the average number of planets per star varies greatly depending on the type of star being observed and the methods used to detect exoplanets. On average, most stars have at least one planet, but some stars have been found to have up to seven planets.
The average number of planets per star is much higher than the number of planets in our own solar system. Our solar system has eight planets, while the average number of planets per star is estimated to be around 1.6. This suggests that our solar system is not a typical representation of planetary systems in the universe.
The higher the average number of planets per star, the higher the potential for finding habitable worlds and potentially life outside of our own solar system. The search for exoplanets and the study of their characteristics can provide insight into the potential for life on other planets and the conditions necessary for its existence.