Alien 'water world' found

Alien 'water world' found

cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com

Astronomers say they have detected a planet just six and a half times as massive as Earth - at a distance so close its atmosphere could be studied, and with a density so low it's almost certain to have abundant water.

The alien world known as GJ 1214b orbits a red dwarf star one-fifth the size of our own sun, 40 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus,

Astronomically speaking, this is on our block

"Since we found the super-Earth using a small ground-based telescope, this means t

(visit the link for the full news article)

"Since we found the super-Earth using a small ground-based telescope, this means that anyone else with a similar telescope and a good CCD camera can detect it too,"

Charbonneau speculated that GJ 1214b was a little too hot for life as we know it, "but it didn't miss it by very much."

I think everything in the universe has a purpose
i'd love to know why all these planets that house no life exist
i'm sure there's a reason

Although the surface temperature on GJ 1214b would be well above water's boiling point on Earth's surface, Charbonneau said the planet could nonetheless possess an exotic form of liquid water due to extreme atmospheric pressure at the surface. In today's news release, Berta said the pressure may turn at least some of the water into a rare crystalline form known as ice-seven.

"Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a water world," Berta said.

Despite this being fascinating don't you guys find a huge problem with science-related news articles?

Alien Water World Found?
They think there's water, or a rare form of it
does that mean they found a water world?

That's one thing about science headlines
They are incredibly misleading
I hate that

EDIT:
sounds interesting
hey can anyone tell me how to be a good consumer shopping for a good telescope?
i'm kinda in a tight budget at the moment since many birthdays and x-mas is coming up but i'd love to be the owner of a nice telescope.

cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 16-12-2009 by ModernAcademia]

reply to post by ModernAcademia


As far as a telescope goes, youd be better off with a good pair of binoculars. You can see much of our solar system with them. I recently made a thread asking about scopes.
To see outside of our system, be willing to spend a couple hundred bucks at the least.

I wonder what these planets that seem to have no purpose are for as well. Maybe the creation of life really IS an accident? They are waiting for the accident to happen?

reply to post by InertiaZero


I paid about $650.00 for mine and it is worth every penny. There are things outside the solar system you know.

M42 from an 8 inch dobsonian (2 less than mine).



M42 from Binoculars

reply to post by ModernAcademia


This in itself says something about our knowledge of the galaxy. I bet there are many worlds just like this only dead inside the Goldilocks zone.

We are getting closer methinks!

Originally posted by DaMod
reply to post by InertiaZero

 

I paid about $650.00 for mine and it is worth every penny. There are things outside the solar system you know.

M42 from an 8 inch dobsonian (2 less than mine).

M42 from Binoculars

Wow! How beautiful! Thanks for sharing that photo and information. It provides a good magnification benchmark when I eventually purchase a good one.

I think everything in the universe has a purpose
i'd love to know why all these planets that house no life exist
i'm sure there's a reason

There's a important distinction in the article:

Charbonneau speculated that GJ 1214b was a little too hot for life as we know it, "but it didn't miss it by very much."

Life as we know it, the possibility isn't ruled out, however.



[edit on 16-12-2009 by RuneSpider]

reply to post by RuneSpider

That combination suggests that the planet's surface temperature would be about 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius), Charbonneau's research team reported.

A little too hot?
We've got hyperthermophiles who can handle 122º. I'd say 200º is more than a little.
But you never know.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Seems like more and more of these other 'planets' are being found recently.... this one sounds like no life can exist there as we know it... but me think there could be one on the way with bearable temperatures.... would be great i think.... as long as life on it isnt hostile... mind you if these ufo's floating around earth are anything to go by i'd say 'hostility' wouldn't be their game coz they've been flying around for too long and havn't bothered us

A few friends interested in this just called me real fast
they told me to check ophius

I don't know, i'm going to check it out

I am going to be looking for some telescopes shortly
maybe put it in my xmas list

mainly because of this article
should be fun!

Originally posted by ModernAcademia

"Since we found the super-Earth using a small ground-based telescope, this means that anyone else with a similar telescope and a good CCD camera can detect it too,"

Charbonneau speculated that GJ 1214b was a little too hot for life as we know it, "but it didn't miss it by very much."

I think everything in the universe has a purpose
i'd love to know why all these planets that house no life exist
i'm sure there's a reason

It's all random...

get used to it.

reply to post by DaMod


What an amazing photo. Hard to believe. With a pair of really high powered binoculars once I saw a satellite from Tortola USBVI turning in the night sky like a pac-man critter.

Originally posted by rusethorcain
reply to post by DaMod

 

What an amazing photo. Hard to believe. With a pair of really high powered binoculars once I saw a satellite from Tortola USBVI turning in the night sky like a pac-man critter.

In relation to your video, how far away is 40light years? if we was to travel there by modern standards?.

What's the best telescope to get for £200 ($299)?

reply to post by anonymousproxy


Light travels at ~ 186,000 miles/sec. There are 31,556,926 sec/year.

Therefore, in miles, 1 ly = 186,000 (approx value of the speed of light) * 31,556,926 (seconds in a year); or 5,878,630,000,000 miles/year.

Even if we could achieve 1% of light-speed, being 186 miles/sec, it would take us about 1000 years to travel just 1 ly.

Hopefully I did my math right. Its been awhile.

EDIT: Fixed math

[edit on 25-3-2010 by ownbestenemy]

Very cool find. I was poking around some MEarth sites and I came across this. This to date is still the most Earth like planet we have found, so we are told... Here are some pictures I found from the Harvard concept guy that was part of the project that discovered this.





And here is a link to some videos from the MEarth Project.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Hold on. The key in that sentence is "Life as we know it". Until just a few years ago scientists didn't know that life existed in and around the undersea thermal volcanic vents known as "black smokers". It was supposedly much too hot and poisonous to sustain life. But sure enough, there is abundant life in the "smoke" and around it.

www.pbs.org...

They don't know for sure that there isn't life on that planet until they send in a probe.

The planet and water has been confirmed!

"Distant 'waterworld' is confirmed"
www.bbc.co.uk...

"New Type of Alien Planet Is a Steamy 'Waterworld'"
www.space.com...

GJ 1214b thus appears to have much more water than Earth does, and much less rock.

There could easily be water in liquid form.

As noted in the artical, the atmospheric pressure is higher than here on earth. Water boils at 212 deg. F at sea level. However, the water in a cars cooling system easily reaches far more because it is under pressure and cannot turn to steam and evaporate. This pressure is what makes it so hazardous to remove the radiator cap while it is still hot.

If the atmospheric pressure is high enough the water could be very hot but still a liquid. As in a previous reply, we have found tube worms and brine shrimp living around volvanic vents at great ocean depths. These were not life as we knew it before that time.

this is amazing, great find

i bet we find life of some form in the next 100 years, sadly most of us on this site will not be around for that discovery but one can only hope.

S & F