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A Newly Confirmed Planet and 42 Additional Planet Candidates

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posted on Jan, 7 2013 @ 12:49 PM
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blog.planethunters.org...



We are pleased to announce the discovery and confirmation of our second confirmed planet : PH2 b-a Jupiter-size planet in the habitable zone of a star like the Sun-by the Planet Hunter project. The paper has already been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal and has been made public via arxiv.org. The estimated surface temperature of 46 degrees Celsius is right for there to be liquid water, but it is extremely unlikely that life exists on PH2 b because it is a gas planet like our Jupiter, and thus there is no solid surface or liquid environment for life to thrive. In order to study this interesting system, we used the HIRES spectrograph and NIRC2 adaptive optics system on the Keck telescopes in Hawaii to obtain both high resolution spectrum and high spatial-resolution images. The observations help us to rule out possible scenarios for false positive detections and give us a measured confidence level of more than 99.9% that PH2 b is a bona-fide planet rather than just an illusion.


This is quite excellent news, not only have they confirmed a new Jupiter sized planet but have 42 more candidates with plenty in the habitable zone.

Turns out that volunteers picking up the scraps from the science teams can still add lots of value.



posted on Jan, 7 2013 @ 01:25 PM
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Aren't there supposedly billions upon billions of planets in this universe? Is this really that big of news when they find one? I feel like its comparable to going to a beach and finding a grain of sand. It's expected...

I guess finding new planets is cool to a certain degree, I just don't see what the big deal is tho knowing that we'd have no shot of reaching any of them...


I guess if someone could explain the significance to me, I'd appreciate it. I guess we are to assume that one day we will have a space craft that will be able to travel light years to reach these, but that just sounds like science fiction to me right now knowing that going to the moon is a struggle...

Side note- Please excuse my ignorance on this subject. If this is a great finding than AWESOME!
edit on 7-1-2013 by jhn7537 because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 7 2013 @ 01:28 PM
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I think anytime we find exoplanest it is a big deal.

It was not too long ago we were not even sure if exoplanets existed.

Now we are finding them all over.

One more step closer to finding out if we are all alone in this here crazy universe.



posted on Jan, 7 2013 @ 01:31 PM
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reply to post by jhn7537
 

This is big news to science nerds like me at the very least. The more we learn about our universe the better.



posted on Jan, 7 2013 @ 01:39 PM
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Exactly, we have never known they even existed before. You could of made a guess that it's likely though, but all these finds tell us a great deal about planetary science and especially ones that are being found in the habitable zones.




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