Three New Planets Found - Similar to Those of Our Solar Sytem

Considering the following news article from Channel4, we may be closer to discovering planets with life. Because these planets have a sun and orbit it in the same way earth does, there is a slight possibility of lifeforms.

Three new planets have been found orbiting a nearby star that is almost identical to the sun. Dr Marek Kukula of the Royal Greenwich Observatory spoke to Channel 4 News.

The planets were discovered by British, Australian and American astronomers.

The planets range from between five and 25 times the size of the earth - similar to that of other planets in our solar system.

Dr Marek Kukula, the public astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, told Channel 4 News: "We haven't actually seen them directly, and this is one of the reasons why this discovery is such a tricky thing to do.

"The planets are far too small and faint to be seen next to the brightness of the star that they're going around. What the scientists have done is look for the tiny wobble in the position of the star that the planets produce when they go around it.

"In the last 15 years scientists have discovered about 400 planets going around other stars, but the holy grail is finding planets that look like the ones in our solar system - similar orbits and similar sizes. We're a step closer to that with this discovery, so it is quite significant."

www.channel4.com...


[edit on 13-12-2009 by TimothyMartin]

While it's definitely interesting, it's not the way you're portraying it. The article you copy/pasted (could we get a source, by the way?) only mentions the possibility of planets at the star because of their evaluation of the sun's wiggles.

As a comparison, there are nine planets in our solar system (eight if you don't count Pluto) and only one has so far been proven to have life. It's theorized that Mars may have had life at one point, microbial at that, but that's still seven other planets without it.

Just because there's potentially a planet circling a sun doesn't mean that planet will have life. The likelihood is that it won't, judging by what we know thus far.

reply to post by EsSeeEye


All I was saying is we are closer to maybe finding new life.

You seem angry...