A new scientific theory based on a new study claims that since Earth was formed during the early evolution of the universe, this means that many habitable planets in the galaxy and other distant star systems are yet to be born, hosting potential life.
The solar system along with Earth and other planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago, where scientists estimated that only eight percent of potential habitable planets would have evolved in the universe since that time.
This also means that there is a 92 percent chance of planets bound to evolve into potential life bearing ones, according to this new study.
This data is based from analysis taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Kepler Space Telescope which is also a planet hunting observatory in space.
According to Peter Behroozi from the Space Telescope Science Institute, the main focus of this study is to understand Earth and its place in the universe. Apparently, from all the planets not only inside the solar system but the rest of the universe, Earth formed rather early.
Hubble and Kepler are now peering back into space and time to unravel the universe's history where data revealed star formation chronicles and how this process occurred at a rapid rate some 10 billion years ago but only utilized a relatively small amount of hydrogen and helium gases.
Researchers believe that there is enough gases left in the universe to generate more new stars and even Earth-like planets for a very long time. According to co-author of the study Molly Peeples from STScI, this remaining stellar material after the Big Bang is more than enough to produce more planets in the future not only in the Milky Way but also beyond the universe.
However, Kepler already detected thousands of Earth like planets from different star systems' habitable zones, which means that these exoplanets are far enough from their host star to produce conditions for liquid water to exist on the planet's surface, which is also found everywhere in the Milky Way.
Scientists believe that there could be more than 1 billion planets in our galaxy today, adding up to 100 billion other galaxies in the observable universe.
Researchers also strongly believe the production of many more Earth-like planets is still ongoing since the last star in the universe is predicted to fizzle out after 100 trillion years.
This new study is published in the journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.