Most stars may form terrestrial worlds

TUCSON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A U.S.-led team of astronomers has determined many nearby sun-like stars in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy might form rocky planets.

University of Arizona astronomer Michael Meyer, who led the study, said the finding suggests that worlds with potential for life might be more common than thought.

Using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Spitzer Space Telescope, Meyer's team wanted to determine whether planetary systems like the one that includes Earth are common in the Milky Way galaxy.

The researchers said at least 20 percent, and possibly as many as 60 percent, of stars similar to the sun are candidates for forming rocky planets.

The study, which included John Carpenter of the California Institute of Technology, Eric Mamajek of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and 11 other astronomers from the United States and Germany, was presented Monday in Boston during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The results appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.