NASA to Reveal "Big News" From Planet-Hunting Spacecraft Thursday, page 3
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reply posted on 24-8-2010 @ 01:42 PM by infinite
reply to post by c3hamby


Sadly, some small minority would become rather unstable if NASA declared a planet - with all the right signs - plus possible detection of "activity" detected from the surface (such as light, etc)

There are individuals who think an Independence day scenario will happen.


reply posted on 24-8-2010 @ 02:43 PM by eNaR
reply to post by MysterE


It's incredible that they've found Waldo amidst billions of stars.


reply posted on 24-8-2010 @ 03:15 PM by Three_moons
reply to post by OneNationUnder

Care to elaborate a bit for those of us that aren't really aware of the ramifications of all this?


Originally posted by Bonified Ween
Most of you still buy into our scripted news? It's funny to watch how all of you line up still to be spoon fed this garbage. One day you'll understand how and why the news has been laid out in front of you the way it has been for quite some time.

Althought today certainly isn't the day and we won't hear it from you. Maybe next year.


reply posted on 24-8-2010 @ 03:26 PM by Faiol
reply to post by SaturnFX


no


first they will announce simple life

then evidences of complex life

than confirmation complex life

than evidences of intelligent life

than confirmation of intelligent life

all that in a time span of 200 years


reply posted on 24-8-2010 @ 03:50 PM by Helmkat
Originally posted by MarkusMaximus
Originally posted by Ezappa
Wonder if they have found a planet in the goldilocks zone.
Maybe a planet with water and an atmosphere.


That would be awesome, but unlikely, I think.

Going back to Kepler's stated scientific goals:


  • Goal 1: Determine the frequency of terrestrial and larger planets in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of spectral types of stars.
  • Goal 2: Determine the distributions of sizes and orbital semi-major axes of these planets.
  • Goal 3: Estimate the frequency of planets and orbital distribution of planets in multiple-stellar systems.
  • Goal 4: Determine the distributions of semi-major axis, albedo, size, mass and density of short-period giant planets.
  • Goal 5: Identify additional members of each photometrically discovered planetary system using complementary techniques.
  • Goal 6: Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems


Finding water and atmosphere over many light-year distances would involove detailed spectrometry observation, but it doesn't appear tha Kepler is equipped to do that. It's observing mass, axis, and density of planets, with only minimal spectral observation of the host stars, not the planets.



This.

Kepler has not been up long enough to find any "Earth like in all respects" planets. Right now its catching all the planets with fast transits across their parent stars. So Nasa will probably just give a "Gosh look at all the planets" speech to calm the masses. After Kepler has been up for a few years then we will start to find the planets that are not Speed Racer wanna bes.

Of course if as we look outward we find that most planets are on caffine we have to ask ourselves how we ended up in a decaf solar system.

Kepler is a not only a mission of discovery, it is also a mission of perspective. Once we have perspective we can begin to answer some of the "big questions".
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