Earth is worth 3,000 trillion, according to scientist's new planet valuing formula

Add to My Stories A scientist has created a formula to calculate the worth of planet Earth and has valued it at three thousand trillion pounds.
Astrophysicist Greg Laughlin came up with the figure by calculating the sum of the planets age, size, temperature, mass and other vital statistics and Earth came out as the most expensive.Mars was only valued at 10,000, while Venus is said to be worth less than a penny.There are about 1,235 other planets in the universe, most of which werent given a high price tag because of their inhospitable climates.

Hefty price tag: Astrophysicist Greg Laughlin valued planet Earth at three thousand trillion poundsProfessor Laughlin from the University of California-Santa Cruz invented the equation, which he used to evaluate the discoveries made by Nasas 600 million Kepler spacecraft .The planet-hunting spacecraft went into orbit two years ago and a year later Laughlin decided to create price tags for the terrestrial planets that Keplar was set to discover.At the time, the exoplanet Gilese 581 c was considered the most Earth-like world known to scientists, but the equation only valued it at 100, while KOI 326.01 is said to be worth 150,000.

More...

• Caught on my iPhone! Airline passenger takes spectacular footage through plane window of space shuttle Discovery's final launch

Laughlin told science writer Lee Billings last week: Ive just always thought that the concept of an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone was pretty vaguely defined, and I wanted a metric that I could plug a planet into to see whether its value was high enough to warrant media hype.This is just a way for me to be able to quantify how excited I should be about any particular planet.

Calculations: There are about 1,235 other planets in the unive! rse, mos t of which werent given a high price tag because of their inhospitable climatesThe older the star, the more value it has because it has had the chance to mature, the mass is then taken into account and generally if its around the same size as Earth it is thought of as a good size for supporting life.
Laughlin also took into account the amount of energy the star creates and whether its temperatures could also support life.The professor concluded that planets with a value of 60 million or more are worth studying but the ones worth less arent.He also said: The formula makes you realise just how precious Earth is and I hope it will help us as a society safeguard what we have.