Planet-hunters find bonanza of new solar systems

Planet-hunters find bonanza of new solar systems


POSTED: 12:56 p.m. EDT, May 29, 2007

Story Highlights
• 28 new planets found outside our solar system in the past year
• Scientists: There could be billions of habitable planets out there
• Four of the solar systems have multiple planets
• "Our home is not a rarity in the universe" says astronomer Geoffrey Marcy

[piercehawkeye45]

It isn't very important to our society but very interesting.

Keep star gazing boys.

[Beestie]

News like that is very exciting. But sort of disappointing in a way since I know we won't get to explore them in my lifetime. Probably the same way that Galileo felt.

[lumberjim]

and if there are many more habitable worlds, you gotta figure that they contain life. and chances are that they contain intelligent life.

BUT...

the distance. it just may be that we'll never be able to span the gap. and maybe they can't either.

I always assume that the sheer odds of it all practically assures the eventuality of 'other life' ....other sentient life. and the vastness of our own little history says to me that other civilizations on other worlds MUST have advanced far beyond our current level of technology. I'd think that if it were possible....they must have been able to travel between stars....

and then the odds begin to work against me.....why would space travelers stop here? what are the odds that they'd notice us and visit?

and then there's those cave paintings in south america to consider.

and the missing link......i think that maybe they HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE

and just maybe we're descended from them .......


sooooo much to look forward to...assuming we don't blow it and collapse into savagery again....like we do.

[lumberjim]

scroll way down

[Aliantha]

woooohoooo! We're saved.

[Ibby]

LJ?

That's fucking hilarious.

[Cyclefrance]

I often wondered where he really came from:

.

[TheMercenary]

MTV short series, "The Head", great flick.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Well, let's see: any saucerians taking an interest in our globe are going to have to remotely sense two things: an atmosphere containing free oxygen, and liquid water. Spectroscopically, they'll probably detect water vapor before any liquid water, but free O2 is a dead giveaway. The gas is maintained only through biogenesis. A dead world at our temperature and mass would exhibit an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, likely with just a pinch of argon. This is the sort of thing you'd find around a Population I main-sequence dwarf star. Population II stars are so metals-poor that the likelihood of rocky planets orbiting them shrinks drastically.

[lizzymahoney]

It's a very big leap, a huge effin leap, a ginormously unbelievable leap, to think that because there are theoretically habitable planets that sentient life would evolve. Rein it in a little. We may be amoebas in a swarm of interstellar life, but we don't know that as of now.

It's very cool that there are other planets that may be conducive to life.

Pure science is beneficial to us. The import may not be clear yet, but things like encouraging others to pursue sciences pure and applied, the gains in technology and analysis, and potential tangents for the research are all benefits.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Just finding a place where it could happen, is a giant step from speculating there must be a place out there somewhere.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Just finding a place where it could happen, is a giant step from speculating there must be a place out there somewhere.

This is true but hopefully as we get better technology we can find more planets that could potentially hold life. Right now, finding those types of planets are extremely hard if not impossible.