Big boost for alien search: BILLIONS of habitable planets may be lurking in the Milky Way

The Milky Way may be teeming with billions of habitable planets, according to a recent survey – and that’s given the search for extra-terrestrial life a big boost.

Two Princeton researchers recently speculated that we really might be alone in the universe, but the study of red dwarf stars in the Milky Way found nine super-Earths - and two in the 'habitable zone' where liquid water could exist.

Red dwarf stars account for 80 per cent of the 200 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy - and scientists now believe that 40 per cent of those might have a planet in the habitable zone.        More Read