Scientists announce planet bounty

Scientists announce planet bounty

news.bbc.co.uk

Astronomers have announced a haul of planets found beyond our Solar System.

The 32 "exoplanets" ranged in size from five times the mass of Earth to 5-10 times the mass of Jupiter, the researchers said.

They were found using a very sensitive instrument on a 3.6m telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla facility in Chile.

The discovery is exciting because it suggests that low-mass planets could be numerous in our galaxy.

"From [our] results, we know now that at least 40% of solar-type stars have low-mass planets. This is really important because it means that

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:

Closer and closer we get , you know even for a guy like me who has seen a billion prediction/disclosure dates threads. things are certainly speeding up ... things might be closer than we think.

This next comment i like

What's very interesting is that models are predicting them, and we are finding them; and furthermore the models are predicting even more lower-mass planets like the Earth."

Ever get the feeling we are being prepared for something?

i feel like i am being drip fed the truth.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 19/10/09 by Quantum_Squirrel]

Every time I look up at the stars at night I ponder how many civilizations are out there and that someone on a planet may be gazing back at me wondering the same thing.

I long for the day we find out we are not alone.

I have this wierd feeling that in the near future we will be the aliens landing on another planet. Saying things like "We come in peace" "Take me to your leader"
Then the people of the planet will start shooting at us.

i would like to see an earth like planet discovered in my life time .. that would be enough confirmation for me.

i think you could detect artificialy produced chemicals in different spectrums of light .... or chemicals that are produced By life . i wonder if this works at these distances.. then we could be sure a planet was occupied before trying to get someone/something there

Originally posted by Quantum_Squirrel
i would like to see an earth like planet discovered in my life time .. that would be enough confirmation for me.

Here, this may interest you if you have not already know of its existence.

First Habitable Earthlike Planet Found

It does seem we are being drip fed the truth. What I dont get is why would a planet have to hold water and oxygen for life to be sustained? All the stuff we believe may not be the answer on other planets. I think science is selfish to think "well life must have to have these cetain conditions to live because we need them". Other beings may be able to exist on many different conditions, I dont believe that life will only be found on planets like earth, but it may be the best place to look first.

Originally posted by theukman
It does seem we are being drip fed the truth. What I dont get is why would a planet have to hold water and oxygen for life to be sustained? All the stuff we believe may not be the answer on other planets. I think science is selfish to think "well life must have to have these cetain conditions to live because we need them". Other beings may be able to exist on many different conditions, I dont believe that life will only be found on planets like earth, but it may be the best place to look first.

Life AS WE KNOW IT needs water to exist... science doesn't say life needs oxygen to be sustained, but it does need to breathe... plants don't need oxygen (they produce it) instead they need CO2. I dont think it's selfish at all, because they are taking what they know about life and applying it as far as they can... it would be downright stupid not to think life requirements are the same here as they would be on another planet, because then we might say "well how do you know a rock is not alive?" how about soil? how about your keyboard, computer, monitor mouse, graphics card, a fire, your television, windows, streets, cars, curtains, cups, how about screen doors? how about individual parts of you, are they alive? your arm? leg? fingers? Trying to identify a living organism without any basis whatsoever would be absolutely foolish. Our basis is a requirement for it to reproduce, breate, has to be made up of cells and more... exobiology is a very very complicated subject and I would hate for anyone to think as you do about life in outerspace - we must have some standards for identifying life, surely?

But, at the same time, I recognize what you are saying - why limit ourselves to only this definition of life that we know of? A very valid question, but pondering will not solve a question like that. Until we see DIRECT evidence of either a sentient being that defies all our notions about life...all life must be treated the same here as anywhere.

fantastic news, so if the telescope has seen them, will there be any pictures?


reply to post by My Call


The link you provided just has the heading and no pictures or writing. I am interested to see this planet. Thanks.

As a child I knew what science is confirming now. We appear to be on a path that will take us to the place were we can answer the first of the big questions

-Is there life beyond Earth?

The answer will be of course "yes"

Then we will ramp up to answer the next question.

-How common is life?

The answer will of course be "much more common then we ever imagined"

and then the Grand prize

-Are there other sentient beings out there?

The answer will be of course "Yes, the Universe is filled with civilzations both very old and very new."

My guess is we will be to the end game in the next 75 to 100 years.

reply to post by Helmkat

The answer will be of course "Yes, the Universe is filled with civilzations both very old and very new."

disagree, i think tech intelligence will be very rare. Still hopefull for complex life though.

Originally posted by lucentenigma
Every time I look up at the stars at night I ponder how many civilizations are out there and that someone on a planet may be gazing back at me wondering the same thing.

I long for the day we find out we are not alone.

for me..stargazing is the best problemsolver. Lookin up there..imagining my place at the earth...zooming out and out and out in my mind ..... realising that my problems do not matter at all and will be over i the blink of an eye ( universal time scale )

I thought from the title that they'd discovered planets made of coconut and chocolate. How disappointing.

Still very interesting though!

i feel like i am being drip fed the truth.

are you seriously expecting to be fed the truth?
hmm... like they say in russia, "roll up your lip".

remember, it's extremely unlikely that anyone is ever going to feed you the truth, - in drips, sips or fountains.

the Truth has always been yours for the taking, right here/there. You may search for it everywhere, only to find that it's here, right now, and always being so.

And it's all yours, IF you can TAKE it. If you can grasp it.

cheers.


[edit on 20-10-2009 by mysteralex]

Originally posted by Sacrosanct
... plants don't need oxygen (they produce it) instead they need CO2.

I am terrible sorry mate, bus as a Botanist i can't allow this to pass

- All plants need Oxygen (O2) as the animals!

At the presence of light they use it's pigment Clorophill to do what we designate as Photosynthesis , so they can produce they'r "food"! In this period they Consume CO2 and release O2!

Photosynthesis

At "dark" periods the plant stop is Photosynthesis and just Breath normaly...Consuming O2 and releasing CO2!
But they are breathing all the time.

Plant Breath system

Cyas

[edit on 20/10/09 by Umbra Sideralis]