NEWS: Top Target Stars For Life Picked

Astronomers have picked a short list of stars were they believe intelligent life is most likely to have developed. Astronomer Margaret Turnbull developed the list based on certain criteria. The criteria was the stars age and chemical composition.



This is great news! When I grew up scientists were still debating whether earth like extra-terrestrial even existed. Now we've compilied a list of stars were we think they are. And the best part is a number of these are relatively near us. It shows me how are knowledge of the universe is expanding. Hopefully we will soon develop the optical telescopes capable of searching the near by stars for these earth like planets.

I expect that within my own lifetime they will be able to point out several stars and say 'these ones have earth-like (in terms of rockiness and size) planets, and this one or two have been spectrally analyzed and have abundant oxygen in their atmosphere's"

That is to say, there's almost certainly life on them.

Its also entirely possible, but I wouldn't dare to 'expect' it, that they will be able to say 'this one in particular has earthy size and rockiness, oxygen in the atmosphere, and industrial pollutants like cfcs and anomolous ozone" ie, has an intelligent civilization upon it.

I believe also that within our lifetimes that they will develop intruments (perhaps laser based telescopes) that allow us to actually see other planets around other stars.
Perhaps with enough clarity to speculate on life possibilites. or even to see lifesigns themselves...

This story is a repeat.

The other one, click here

I suggest looking for the story before posting it...again.

This is fascinating. We live somewhat close to the VLA and I love going there. I'm in awe and I love to think that they might actually pick something up!


iceofspades - the other story is a repeat. This one was posted 2 days ago, that one today.

That story was posted 2 days later then this one. Look at the date before yell "DUPE!"

NEways, within the decade we will have the capability to see Earth like planets and even the possiblity to detect the glow and heat bubble of any cities on these planets. I read somewhere that with Adaptive optics techniques combined with Gravitational lensing and better space telescopes it's possible to image individual continents on these hypothetical habitable planets.

It's still the same story, Sardion. If new information arises on the subject, which it invariably does, that's not cause enough to start an entirely new thread. Appending the old is far from difficult.

Regardless...so I don't totally disrupt the flow of this thread, I think this is a step in the right direction; a solid and direct idea of where life is possible. Hopefully we'll get to find out some day. : )

Edit: I just got what Sardion was saying. Jesus I feel like an idiot! *apologize*

[edit on 20-2-2006 by iceofspades]

Yes, the other story was the repeat. Only much much later after I posted it did I realize my mistake. My bad!

At any rate, I find this bit of news very fascinating. Astronomers are getting better and better at detecting extrasolar planets, with the smallest extrasolar planet detected so far being 5 times the size of earth. It's likely that this planet is a terrestrial (rocky) planet. So far all the other planets detected have been gas giants.

This is definitely a step in the right direction, provided life elsewhere is similiar to that on earth. But then, who knows?

Oh, by the way, have any of you read this article? It's a little short story on aliens who picked up signals from earth and are debating whether to reply or not. Funny as hell! Check it out

Originally posted by Nygdan
...they will be able to say 'this one in particular has earthy size and rockiness, oxygen in the atmosphere, and industrial pollutants like cfcs and anomolous ozone" ie, HAD a 'civilization' upon it.

(Apologies to Nygdan for the toungue-in-cheek edits...)