European Observatory to Make 'Major' Alien Planet Announcement Monday

A European observatory will announce what it describes as "major" alien planet findings on Monday (Sept. 12).

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Monday to "report significant new results in the field of exoplanets," ESO officials said in a media alert.

The results were obtained with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher instrument, better known as HARPS, officials said. HARPS is a spectrograph on ESO's 11.8-foot (3.6-meter) telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. [The Strangest Alien Planets]

Participating in the press conference will be:
Francesco Pepe, Geneva Observatory, Switzerland
Lisa Kaltenegger, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany
Markus Kissler-Patig or Joe Liske, ESO

Kissler-Patig or Liske will discuss the future of exoplanet research with ESO's European Extremely Large Telescope, ESO officials said. This instrument will be the world's largest telescope, boasting a 129-foot (39.3-meter) main mirror. It will be built on Chile's Cerro Armazones mountain, and could begin operations by early in the next decade.

ESO didn't give any further details about what Pepe and Kaltenegger will discuss. Both scientists are actively involved in the search for potentially habitable alien planets — those on which liquid water, and perhaps life as we know it, could exist.

According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, astronomers have discovered 564 confirmed alien planets to date, with more than 1,000 more candidate worlds suggested by data from the Kepler space observatory.

www.space.com...

What do you think? Perhaps a habitable planet has been discovered.

They'll say they discovered that one day they might find the possibility of water or water like elements on planetary bodies.

Oh ya!!

Thanks for the heads up - I will be watching with interest. It seems we keep getting little bits and pieces of official info at a faster and faster clip. It could be interesting.

HERE LET ME SAVE YOU THE TIME AND POST MONDAY'S HEADLINE

Alien planet Nibiru is real and going to destroy us all Tuesday.

Have a nice day!

reply to post by Kennit


Ditto! Thanks for the heads up on this. Sometimes these sorts of press conferences can be a bit exaggerated, but still, it will be interesting to keep an eye out for what the announcement is. Thanks!

Quite often what is a big deal to astronomers and planetary scientists isn't necessarily a big deal to the general public.

I shall remain cautiously optimistic.

European Extremely Large Telescope

Am I the only one that finds this name rather uninspired?

It'll be another yawn fest. I guarantee no pants will be crapped and no heads will asplode.

Originally posted by pirhanna
They'll say they discovered that one day they might find the possibility of water or water like elements on planetary bodies.

Oh ya!!

This.
2nd line of thisness.

alien planet?

arent all other planets extraterrestrial??

What do you think? Perhaps a habitable planet has been discovered.

There already have been a small number of highly probable "Earth like" and habitable planets discovered. Their research is about exactly this, as far as i can guess.

I am guessing that the press conference MIGHT be about that they found even more Earth like planets and/or that the number of such habitable planets is far higher than expected.

So..while such news would not be "sensational" or headlines worthy for the mainstream media - from another point of view it WOULD be sensational since it simply means there are many planets out there like ours!

Edit: Reading again and seeing them mentioning the spectograph, you could be correct that the finding is about that they discovered water on some/many planets - which again means a likelihood for life.

Well so far anything is possible. They've already found a planet made of diamond and an 'invisible' planet.

My guess is that it's probably a planet that tells dirty jokes.

I will probably tune in but after being duped by NASA's media alerts about 'alien' findings, I will be unexcited. Lets see if the ESO can prevent a bore-fest and give us some juicy new science.

So what do you expect them to say?
"Yaek..Nibiru is real and you are all doomed. By the way we are getting to the Ark"?


Its something about a planet that could harbor life or something along that line. Like we have heard time and again.

But one thing is sure..they are making the public anxious every time they discover something.

Are we hiring scientists or publicists?

Out with it, because it's not revolutionary or a breakthrough if you have to wait till monday, real discoveries are worth the overtime pay!

That telescope sounds like a beast 40m mirror!!

Originally posted by Domo1

European Extremely Large Telescope

Am I the only one that finds this name rather uninspired?

Hmmmm.....Generic Its certainly not the Vaticans'

Wake me up when they get a signal from there, maybe an extra terrestrial I love lucy re-run, than I will be excited, all this we found a planet that might be in the Goldilocks zone that could plausibly have water on it is BS.

maybe it's just coincidence
but this particular announcement seems to be being played up everywhere i go.
more than usual for a press conference about astronomy?

The announcement from ESO is slightly different.

ESO to hold virtual press conference to discuss major HARPS exoplanet findings

It's a virtual press conference, and only the press was contacted, so I guess it's nothing really special.