Our Milky Way galaxy is home to at least 100 billion alien planets, and possibly many more, a new study suggests.

Lead author Jonathan Swift, of Caltech in Pasadena and his colleagues arrived at their estimate after studying a five-planet system called Kepler-32, which lies about 915 light-years from Earth. The five worlds were detected by NASA’s Kepler Space telescope which flags the tiny brightness dips caused when exoplanets cross their star’s face from the instrument’s perspective.

If you are interested in the technical details and how they arrived at a figure of 100 billion read this months issue of  The Astrophysical Journal.  This is not the place to expand on the matter, only to draw your attention to this probable massive number of planets in our own galaxy alone, many of whom are the right distance away from their suns to have water and possibly some form of life.

From an Epicurean point of view it all points to the littleness of humans and their concerns and the insignificance of our planet.  The idea that we are the supreme beings specially created by god is patently absurd.  Our lives are frequently nasty, brutish and short and it is time we exercised some humility in the face of emerging knowledge of the universe.   Epicurus would enjoin us to stop petty squabbling, make an effort to be tolerant, civilised and considerate of those less fortunate than ourselves.  He would tell us to concentrate on our own versions of the Epicurean garden, enjoy life and friendships, try to abandon fear and stop worrying about “success”.

P.S       ……..and his words fell upon stony ground!