Here's what we know:
* The Milky Way is huge: It contains billions of stars.
* Planets are common: Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars (exoplanets) and the number is increasing rapidly.
* Planets are probably even more common: We're only able to detect planets using certain methods, and those methods are biased towards finding larger planets closer to their stars. This means there are likely many more planets out there that we haven't detected yet.
Estimates:
Scientists estimate that there could be hundreds of billions of planets in the Milky Way. Some estimates go as high as one trillion!
It's important to note: These are just estimates. We won't know the exact number until we can observe all the planets in the galaxy, which is impossible with current technology.
