I just had a revelatory experience.
while surfing for “extrasolar planets”
Feeling sad for Pluto
Demoted to a dwarf planet.
I happened to click here,
then scrolled down.
Try it; I’ll wait here. . .
You feel it?
I knew we had discovered quite a few,
but scrolling through them
makes the number visceral.
And these just in our backyard
out here in the suburbs
of the Milky Way.
Once TESS deploys,
and then the Webb,
the list is going to explode!
Our galaxy alone
Is estimated to have
at least 160 billion planets.
Forget Pluto!
I just want to see the list
of the first million planets found
The first 0.00000625%.
We’d need 160,000 such lists
to cover them all.
So you tell me:
Are we alone?
