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The terms are derived from Latin words for Earth (Terra and Tellus), and an alternative definition would be that these are planets which are, in some notable fashion, "Earth-like".
Using a revolutionary new camera, UK astronomers have a real chance of being the first to find Earth-like planets around other stars. PhD student Neale Gibson of Queen’s University Belfast will present the first results from the RISE instrument in his talk on Wednesday 2 April at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast.
www.ras.org.uk...
Those two things put together give you a relatively low mass of the planet for reasons I'll make specific in just a second. This is one of the lowest mass planets that's been discovered in this way. It's only about ten times the Earth's mass. That's kind of comparable to--a little less than Neptune and Uranus. And so, in this case, it isn't actually clear whether you should think about this thing as a kind of low-mass outer planet or a big Earth-like rock. And so, that isn't clear in this particular case.
Professor Charles Bailyn, Yale University (Extract from a lecture explaining the detection of exoplanets
oyc.yale.edu...
Oh this is rich. This isn't proof of NASA lies, it's proof that NASA scientists are human. It is also proof of there being a lot of unconfirmed earth sized planets in the galaxy, that's it.
And that's the kicker here, unconfirmed. that team members had been allowed to keep to themselves for further analysis until next February.
NASA wasn't planning to withhold this information
they wanted to investigate further and confirm their findings before sharing the news, this is what real scientists typically do, I say typically because, Dimitar Sasselov got a bit ahead of himself obviously.
But please, continue with your ignorant witch hunt against NASA, it's quite funny to watch actually.
Originally posted by yeti101
reply to post by AgentSmith
fair play the term "earth like" is more widely abused than i thought. The reason it annoys me so much is becuase we're not there yet. Its crucial we convey the science to the public & press as accurately as we can.
It detracts from the day we do discover a true earth-like planet. Other planets like earth have been speculated about for 2000 years. Our generation has the chance to find the answer.
The result might still be zero, we dont know yet. For him to stand there and say "100 million" etc is wreckless. He's setting us up for a fall when future missions turn up venus-like planets in the HZ of sun like stars.
The press & public will say "but you said earth-like" not "venus like" it makes us all look stupid.
[edit on 3-8-2010 by yeti101]
Originally posted by spikey
reply to post by mother1138
The really important question has yet to be asked it seems...exactly WHY would they be planning to 'sit on the information' or shelve it indefinitely, in the first place?
And doesn't this revelation, that they had intended to keep the information hidden, at least tell those that are ready to believe anything the government and their agencies tell them (or don't tell them) to at least be a little less trusting of what is served up to them as the truth of a matter?
There is no credible reason to hide this from the public, none at all.
If the 'settle upon' reason was one of clarification, it would be a simple matter to state 'subject to clarification' as a disclaimer on the accuracy of the finds.
But no...they were planning to lie to the public instead.(a lie by omission, is still very much a lie)
Which begs the obvious question...if they plan to lie about something as benign as finding other 'Earth like' planets in the galaxy, one can imagine they would not be exactly forthright regarding really important issues and discoveries eh?
Food for thought...eyes open folks.
Originally posted by BlasteR
Originally posted by Thepreye
We should get this place tidied up, we might have visitors soon!
Perhaps this is why so many UFO's differ in size, shape and complexity and why abductees often report multiple types of creatures/beings.
-ChriS
It's because of Confirmation Bias
Originally posted by Argyll
reply to post by yeti101
You are absolutely correct.
NASA have confirmed that the data so far recovered does not confirm any Earth like planets.
Will people here believe that?........no
If NASA confirmed that they had found intelligent life on a planet in our galaxy (or anywhere else for that matter)........would people here believe that?............damn right they would!
why is that?
I think some posts in this thread clearly reflect confirmation bias, like the supposition that NASA was hiding Earthlike planets when that's not the case. A planet the size of Earth orbiting a star at a distance closer than Mercury's orbit is not what most people would consider an "Earth-like" planet.
Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses whether or not it is true. As a result, people gather evidence and recall information from memory selectively, and interpret it in a biased way.