BREAKING! Odds of Life on Newfound Earth-Size Planet '100 Percent,' Astronomer Says!

I'm trying to understand why this is so exciting for some. Especially those that are on other threads proliferating the "they are here" stance.

First off, like I said before...the sensational quote that generates such an absurd headline is not from a scientific standpoint. It was from a scientist, yes, but he was merely expressing his wishes and desires. For crying out loud, read the article!

And as far as finding a planet in what we consider the "habitable zone"......this is surprising to you people? How is this surprising, and how are you overly excited?!?!? We have been fining planets for years...years folks. Our detection capabilities have been improved and the method behind it refined enough to where we can find smaller planets (if the system if properly aligned with out detection equipment). If you understand even the basics of planet hunting, you should understand that this discovery was so inevitable that it is almost boring.

You folks need to understand, that the mere detection of a planet in the "habitable zone" has nothing to do with your beloved religious desire to proclaim little green men combined with a shadow government are controlling your existence.

The shear ignorance of modern science displayed in this thread is insulting. To be surprised at this "discovery" and try to tie it into whatever delusional desire about aliens and UFOs is a reminder to me about how far we have to go in our own community before we can branch out and have others take us seriously.

Every day seems to add indications that disclosure is imminent. It REALLY sucks to have become so cynical toward my government & the media that I suspect an ulterior motive in anything they say. I think I feel cheated.

Hey I have a prediction

This century we will find thousands of planets with the potential to have life on it

Good chance that we will contact aliens, based off of absolutly nothing. But I can hope cant I?

We will build structures on the moon then maybe some asteroids or even mars, or all 3

We will get the projects in our black budget secret opps programs out to the public for the good of us all.

We will begin to modify our species with transhumanism, the very rich will be first to use this technology, and maybe in the 22nd century we will have this technology for the common man

reply to post by Quasar_La-Zar

We will begin to modify our species with transhumanism, the very rich will be first to use this technology, and maybe in the 22nd century we will have this technology for the common man

We are already doing that now, aren't we? Little things like anti-biotics, robotic limbs, genetic studies...all early forms of what you referring to? I'm a "transhuman", I have a bio-mechanical heart, lol. It only cost me $185,000.00, lol.

Time needed to travel to Gliese 581g in a rocket travelling one tenth the speed of light, or 19,000 miles per second - 200 years. Planet's gravity means a human could walk on the surface (apparently)

reply to post by ZiggyMojo


Good reply and I agree.

I find it quite curious that there's been a lot of statements regarding life in space recently. Like the Vatican announcement or the more recent UN appointment of a contact person to aliens. I don't know how deep the conspiracy goes but I am of the belief that the government(s) knows a hell of a lot more than they are willing to share with us.

Are they applying lubricant to an issue for easier 'insertion'?
Because I still think a lot of people will freak out regardless. The majority of the population is still sleeping and I am sure they will suddenly feel a lot smaller now that news like this is starting to come out. Thankfully that's changing and more people are starting to spend time to THINK about things, possibilities and recent discoveries.

Personally I am not surprised by this news. I am, however, totally surprised by this news.
The idea that there's other planets supporting life out there is immensely exciting even when I felt like it had to be so. If you look at the actual scale of the universe, it's absolutely Big McHugeLarge. It absolutely boggles the mind and if 10-20% of solar systems will have a planet or more in that habitable ribbon, then I feel the chances are good that it's going to be crowded out there. We have a lot of growing up to do. Hopefully this'll give us a kick in the butt to get our priorities straight. (Easier said than done)

It's definitely a weird feeling. Now imagine when they start saying they have found signs of life. Because there will be life out there. No doubt about that.

The Gliese 581 solar system has been very prominent recently, with a "suspicious laser-like signal" emanating from Gliese 581e, 581g being very Earth-like, Bebo sending a radio message to 581c, etc. It could be controlled information leaking, sure, but perhaps it's just that public sector tech is getting to the point that it can just now find such extrasolar planets?

I couldn't find where it said the odds of life were 100% in that article, but it doesn't really matter - we don't have proof of life, just speculation. Certainly, we need more research into this system (and space in general). But awesome that it is so Earth-like. However, it goes 'round its sun every 37 days and does not rotate on its axis in the same way as does Earth; one side of the planet faces the sun perpetually.

I think life/consciousness will arise spontaneously ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE in this universe, and that we only need to "tune" our instruments to the right "frequency" to find them. We are still looking for life at the scale of human beings, and that is by no means a requirement for life!

reply to post by infinite


I would much rather send a probe. Seeing as we will be discovering planets like this now at an exponential rate, it doesn't make much financial sense to send people...especially since many of these will turn out to be nothing more than big dead rocks. Far better to send thousands of probes out there. Sure, they will take a while to get there at sub-light speeds, but their return transmissions will be a fraction of the time it took them to get there....allowing us to target a future human excursion.

At this time, a 200 year journey for us is a stretch. Sure, pooling a lot of resources we could build a city sized, self sustainable spaceship in orbit and even find folks wiling to partake in the multi-generational journey....but to do that without real confirmation of anything is the definition of ignorance.

reply to post by IgnoreTheFacts


Or, we could send humanoid robots. Currently, all these advance robots do is spend time in Japanese laboratories - much better to send them into space. In fact, build a robot colony on the moon. Cheaper than sending humans.

Originally posted by rajaten

Originally posted by infinite
Did anyone just see the report on SKYNEWS about it?

It was really odd. Water is apparently on the surface. I'm quite the philistine, alas, when it comes to astronomy so I have no idea how detection of water works across light years. But apart from that, the gentlemen ended the interview on the most bizarre and almost absurd means;

"We should lay low. We don't know what life is out there. Waiting for us."

Waiting for us......

I imagine there will be many millions who will not sleep well tonight.

*What was that!.....Behind you!.....In that shadow!.......Outside your window!....Owl eyes?!....*

I doubt there will be anyone even remotely disturbed by this..if there are, they're probably the sort of people that jump out of their skins at the drop of a hat.

Bit late to stay 'low' as Hawkins has said anyway, our radio transmissions have been permeating through space to a distance of over 100 light years advertising us to anyone that might be listening.

Besides, that little 'oops', all an advanced species would have to do would scan our planet, to know there was abundant life, due to all the other emissions generated by life.

These are things i would have thought a brilliant physicist would have known, and i am surprised he didn't realize what he was saying was...well, utter nonsense.

Anything looking, within 100-150 light years, already knows we are here.

Bit hard to hide, when you're shouting your head off.

Some interresting info about the new planet :

Because it puts out so little light and warmth, its habitable zone lies much closer in than does the sun's. At such tight distances, planets in the zone experience strong gravitational tugs from the star that probably slow their rotation over time, until they become "locked" with one side always facing the star, just as the moon always keeps the same face pointed towards Earth.

That would mean perpetual daylight on one side of the planet and permanent shadow on the other. A first approximation suggests the temperature would be 71 °C on the day side and -34 °C on the night side, though winds could soften the differences by redistributing heat around the planet.

Travelling from one side of the planet to the other, there would be a range of intermediate temperatures, says Vogt. "The most comfortable place on this planet … is along what we call the terminator, the line between light and dark," he says. "You basically see the star sitting on the horizon – you see an eternal sunrise or sunset."

www.newscientist.com...

I think this is verry interresting now that we found such a planet. This planet could support life.... By the way with life I don't mean that it has to be intelligent ...

Originally posted by trailertrash

Originally posted by Raumrabe
What about Saturn's moon Titan? It has ice, water, and weather patterns almost like ours. Although it is extremely colder there scientist are almost certain there is microbial life or possibly something more. The reason I say microbial life so confident is that we have found microbes on the moon, mars, comet dust, etc.

It's getting well known that life can exist just about anywhere given the right few chances. I mean come on, mosquitoes can survive in the vacuum of space.

So, scientist find water on a planet like Earth, odds are there is "some" form of life there.

That doesn't count dude. Titan is in our solar system. Sheesh.

I hope my sarcasm radar is correct, because if not then...lol

I find it amazing that we can find these planets at all. When newer more powerful telescopes are launched like the James Webb Space Telescope, we will find more and more of them. Not only that, but the new telescopes will be able to do a spectral analysis of the planet's atmosphere to look for life markers like oxygen and methane. When I was born we new next to nothing about the planets in our own solar system, now we are analyzing exo-planets. It really is a great time for space exploration.

I guess the next step would be to send a probe driven by ion or nuclear propulsion and report back in a few hundred years hehe.

The most important thing about this discovery, IMO, is what it does for the statistical models of "earthlike" planets in the galaxy and by extension the entire Universe. If within a small 117 star sample (there are only 117 stars closer than Gliese) you find 2 solar systems like ours, the odds of that occurring in larger samples grows immensely.

After spending our entire lives being told how "special" Earth is and how lucky we are in astronomical terms, we are now finding the exact opposite is true. We are the norm, not the exception, and that is HUGE news. A complete paradigm shift which people are still grappling with.

I found that to be the most exciting news from Kepler, as well. The leaked chart which showed the number and relative size of the planets found. The vast majority were within a few Earth masses and the large Jupiter-like gas giants were the minority. That has huge implications which are repeated here with the Gliese findings.

The SkyNews article from 2007 says that Gliese 581c is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is to our Sun, meaning the pull of gravity there is much stronger. Does this mean that humanoids on this planet would evolve to be shorter than us on average? Maybe spindlier limbs? Maybe different skin pigmentation? Hmmm...

"You've taken the first step. Soon, you will take another. Baby steps, Ellie. Baby steps."-Contact
Disclosure will probably take decades, maybe longer. Besides this planet is also tidally locked in orbit meaning one side faces the sun constanly and the other side is in perpetual darkness. This leaves a very narrow twilight zone aorund the terminators for life to have developed. But I sense more discoveries are on the horizon and should give everyone hope and the realization we have to take care of our home planet first before we can move on to these others.

Originally posted by Nicolas Flamel
I find it amazing that we can find these planets at all. When newer more powerful telescopes are launched like the James Webb Space Telescope, we will find more and more of them. Not only that, but the new telescopes will be able to do a spectral analysis of the planet's atmosphere to look for life markers like oxygen and methane. When I was born we new next to nothing about the planets in our own solar system, now we are analyzing exo-planets. It really is a great time for space exploration.

I guess the next step would be to send a probe driven by ion or nuclear propulsion and report back in a few hundred years hehe.

This is wonderful news! With the new advancements in the search for extrasolar planets, it was just a matter of time before a discovery like this was made, and it's exciting to finally see it in print. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the future of space exploration will bring. Hopefully this newly discovered planet's ability to support life will be confirmed with more study.

There'll be many more such discoveries to follow. Maybe as more and more earthlike planets are discovered and confirmed, it will finally give us the kick we need to start really making advances in space travel. The sooner we do, the better we'll be prepared if/when we need to leave Earth behind if we want the human race to survive. Sending out a probe would be a good first step, and while we wait for the results, the best next step would be to really work on advancing our spacecraft to get to at least half the speed of light so that interstellar travel would become feasible by the time we have all the information we need about where we want to go.

Originally posted by fusion47

The SkyNews article from 2007 says that Gliese 581c is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is to our Sun, meaning the pull of gravity there is much stronger. Does this mean that humanoids on this planet would evolve to be shorter than us on average? Maybe spindlier limbs? Maybe different skin pigmentation? Hmmm...

Someone mentioned the gravity there is 2x Earth's gravity. So if there are any animals they would be more massive and have bulkier shorter legs or maybe snakelike. If there is less than Earth's gravity they would be more spindlier looking.

Here's an interesting link that discusses the effect of gravity different than ours on the life forms there: www.xenology.info...

This is hardly news if you have taken the time to watch Stephen Hawking's Into The Universe : The Story of Everything. He talks all about Gliese, even how long it would take us to get there using different methods. And I promise you, no one on ats will live that long...yet

chech it out
good watch
Story Of Everything
thats just part 1 of 9

Part 8 talks about Gliese
Part 8/9