Kepler space telescope spots five Earth-sized planets in our galaxy

Kepler space telescope spots five Earth-sized planets in our galaxy

www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- Are we alone in the universe? Findings by NASA's Kepler space telescope are making that seem less likely.

NASA scientists have announced Kepler has spotted five planets about the size of Earth, orbiting stars in our galaxy.

These planets are orbiting in what is known as the habitable zone, which puts them at a distance from their suns where liquid water could exist. Liquid water is a key ingredient for life to form.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Just another step closer.
Not exactly going to shake the ATS crowed to their core but a well needed boost for those whose top priority is American Idol and Wal - Mart. Maybe get 'em to think about something else for a change.
It's nice to see the msm covering stories like these and for scientists to be talking seriously about life on other planets.
Until we fully prove life exists elsewhere in the Universe and we are not alone we can never fully evlove.
I think small steps like these are very necessary for the ignorant masses who never ponder such things.


Pretty cool all the same though but like I said, most of these types of things are already assumed here on ATS.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Star & Flag--what's even more important than the size of these planets is the fact that they are in the "Goldilocks zone" where the distance from the planet to their star is optimal for supporting life. Up until now we have only found one of these, Gliese 481C, and the planet's existence was in doubt. Finding FIVE of these planets, rocky planets that are optimal in size and location to support life makes it almost impossible to deny the existence of life on other planets. Wow.

Because liquid water is essential for life to form on earth, does that extend to other planets too?

If animals evolve to suit their environment, could a species evolve to live on a planet with no water?

I'm just thinking out aloud here. When I hear Nasa say they have found other earth like planets I always think why do they need to be earth like for life to evolve?

Now when the headline reads:

Kepler space telescope spots five Earth-sized planets in our galaxy WITH FREON CONTAMINANT IN ATMOSPHERES

-we will know we are not alone.

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left planets to check

!!

Because liquid water is essential for life to form on earth, does that extend to other planets too? If animals evolve to suit their environment, could a species evolve to live on a planet with no water?

reply to post by Namaste1001


Agreed. My thoughts exactly. I've ALWAYS thought this. Isn't it a little shallow of them to think that other life forms out there had to evolve just like we did? Or maybe they know something we don't and they've known about these planets for years and are well aware that there is water there. It's hard to say. I don't know what to believe anymore.

Originally posted by Namaste1001
Because liquid water is essential for life to form on earth, does that extend to other planets too?

If animals evolve to suit their environment, could a species evolve to live on a planet with no water?

I'm just thinking out aloud here. When I hear Nasa say they have found other earth like planets I always think why do they need to be earth like for life to evolve?

I agree!!
To me, that's humans thinking on that arrogant level again; planets have to be like ours to sustain life.

Just because being too close to the sun is not good for us, whose to say that another species couldn't sustain life in that temperature? Different species are going to be made up of different compounds and elements, and may not need what we need to live.

Originally posted by ButterCookie

Originally posted by Namaste1001
Because liquid water is essential for life to form on earth, does that extend to other planets too?

If animals evolve to suit their environment, could a species evolve to live on a planet with no water?

I'm just thinking out aloud here. When I hear Nasa say they have found other earth like planets I always think why do they need to be earth like for life to evolve?

I agree!!
To me, that's humans thinking on that arrogant level again; planets have to be like ours to sustain life.

Just because being too close to the sun is not good for us, whose to say that another species couldn't sustain life in that temperature? Different species are going to be made up of different compounds and elements, and may not need what we need to live.

Indeed, the scientists also assume that alien intelligences may already be on supposed 'hostile-environment' planets. A planet that doesn't have water or breathable air could quite easily be colonised and settled by 'biosphere' habitats and terraformed slowly.
It could be there are hundreds, even thousands of planets like this.
In the meantime while the observers on earth are gazing about, nothing is being done to get our own colonising off-world in motion. So our planets own population steadily increases with nowhere left on earth to settle......

Originally posted by Namaste1001
Because liquid water is essential for life to form on earth, does that extend to other planets too?

If animals evolve to suit their environment, could a species evolve to live on a planet with no water?

I'm just thinking out aloud here. When I hear Nasa say they have found other earth like planets I always think why do they need to be earth like for life to evolve?

I completely agree with you. I don't think that every single life form in our universe has to survive off of water and oxygen. However, the only way humans (At least at this time) would be able to identify and confirm that life could exist on other planets is by looking for the chemical signatures that would be necessary for humans to survive simply because that's the only way we can confirm extraterrestrial life at this point. Once we get an indication as to what other things EBE's could survive on we could also test those theories as well, but right now we can only look for what we know to look for: the building blocks to life our own planet.

For all we know there could be life in Jupiter's clouds, or on the surface of Venus--or hell, maybe even in the Sun? The possibilities are endless. But as of this time, we can only look through the very narrow telescope of our own species. Further research such as this may allow us to broaden our horizons, but remember...even 50 years ago, no one even dreamed that planets outside of our solar system could be real. With our expanding rate of tech, in another 50 years we may have more ways to look for non-water or oxygen based lifeforms. But patience is a virtue and that's all we can use right now.

reply to post by Namaste1001


Nice point but i think they made a mistake when saying liquid water. Scientists know that life can exist in a lot of forms of liquid not necessarily water. This is why they are now searching for liquid on planets not only liquid water.

Although it is true that liquid is only a key ingredient in living organisims that we know of so far.

Originally posted by Namaste1001
Because liquid water is essential for life to form on earth, does that extend to other planets too?

If animals evolve to suit their environment, could a species evolve to live on a planet with no water?

I'm just thinking out aloud here. When I hear Nasa say they have found other earth like planets I always think why do they need to be earth like for life to evolve?

This is exactly what I've been wondering since I learned that NASA was searching for planets with water. It's so vital to us, sure, but maybe not every creature in the galaxy needs water to survive.

Same goes for temperature too! Some creatures could probably evolve to survive in sub zero or super heated environments. The universe is an amazing place! Who knows?