We are not alone. We wish we were, but we are not.
Posted on 03/22/2011 3:29:59 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
That's scientists' latest estimate for our galaxy alone, based on Kepler data
Roughly one out of every 37 to one out of every 70 sunlike stars in the sky might harbor an alien Earth, a new study reveals.
These findings hint that billions of Earthlike planets might exist in our galaxy, researchers added.
These new calculations are based on data from the Kepler space telescope, which in February wowed the globe by revealing more than 1,200 possible alien worlds, including 68 potentially Earth-size planets. The spacecraft does so by looking for the dimming that occurs when a world transits or moves in front of a star.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Numbers are off. Drake Equation did not include enough factors. The authors of the article need to read Ward & Brownlee’s “Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe.”
Prove it: show me one.
So is there a planet with just women out there?
NOW, if only we could find ourselves James T. Kirk and the warp drive on Enterprise, perhaps we could find them, that would just be dandy, wouldn’t it?
You got that right. More scientific guessing with nothing concrete to go on.
Eventually, we will get this one little radio message from beyond our world...and then...our entire vision of the universe will change overnight, and likely scare us to death.
Can’t show you an Alien Earth, but proof of Alien Life Forms exist on MSNBC.
Only 2-billion? I say there’s at least a Trillion. Prove me wrong!
>Prove it: show me one.
Head down here to L.A. Their language ain’t English, that’s for sure.
This could be interesting.
I take it neither of you actually read the article?
Astronomers have discovered rocky planets orbiting stars, and they're orbiting stars in the "right" zone - the zone that would allow for liquid water to exist.
There have been four such discoveries, and the scientists are predicting that if their equations are accurate, eight more should be discovered in the next several years, bring it to a total of eight. After that, it just becomes a process of statistical probability to predict how many exist in the galaxy in total.
You're just begging for a Helen Thomas pic aren't you?
I wonder if they have the internet, ipod’s, video games, mini malls, mcdonalds, etc.. /sarc
Until they land on one, or see it looking Strangely Earthlike - with life and stuff - through a telescope, it’s just a rocky planet orbiting its sun, not an “Alien Earth.”
We are not alone. We wish we were, but we are not.
Actually, most civilizations that are just a bit more advanced than ours have probably gone dark from our perspective, because radio waves are a fairly primitive technology to makre use of.
Infinite for sure, besides higher spritual realms, I don’t want anymore physical worlds I die on, Come Lord..
Perhaps God has a separate covenant with another species on a separate planet.
Who knows?
It has been said that our planet is perfectly situated in the galaxy (which itself if perfectly situated in the universe) to best observe the cosmos.
My impression is that they didn't. The Kepler mission is all about actual observations. Kepler will give us data about where to point even better telescopes in the future.
We can't see gravity, but you concede it exists, right? How do we know it exists? Because we can see its effects. That is EXACTLY how they know these planets exist - through something that is called wobble. Astronomers can detect that wobble, and through some complex calculations (that exceed my ability to explain), the size and distance of the orbiting body can be predicted.
No one is saying these planets resemble earth in every way. But, they are saying they resemble earth in size, and in distance to the star, so that there's a potential for earth-like conditions.
Maybe. On the other hand we might just get a warhead and a big flash. I figure there’s no reason to assume an ET civilization would have any particular regard for us. Lots of resources on Earth.
It's possible that I look exactly like Catherine Zeta-Jones. After all, I'm a human female.
Okay, they have evidence of planets. I'm as big a science fiction fan as the next wife and mother of deranged geeks, but we're not talking a wormhole to Abydos, here.
We already have an alien as pResident.
And, with the size of those ears, there's a reasonable chance he continues to receive his home-world "signals".
Has it? Well, I don't know who said that. But it's silly.
“The spacecraft does so by looking for the dimming that occurs when a world transits or moves in front of a star.”
So, this means that they must have statistics that indicate what percentage of stars have a planetary elliptic that is aligned properly with our star. Unless the elliptic is oriented edge-on with us, not a single ‘world’ orbiting that star would ever transit or move in front of that star (between us and the star).
hmmm....
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Well. That makes three of us, if we include Cathy.
I love science fiction too!
What if they use telepathy and some of their thought waves travel here?
Then we won't even need telescopes or radio antennaes. All we'd need to do is listen for the voices in our heads.
Maybe schizophrenics are just better attuned to these telepathic waves.
Or maybe I'm just going crazy!
LOL!
Why, yes! Isn't she lovely?
You only have to look similar enough to support life. It's a pretty low bar, really. :D
That is an interesting question. The spacecraft is not in earth orbit, but in a trailing solar orbit. But still, the orientation would need to be as you describe for it (an exoplanet) to obscure the view irrespective of the spacecraft's orbit relative to earth.
Wiki's article on Kepler says that the observed star systems are the ones that are on a similar galactic plane as ours - maybe that makes a difference - same plane, same orientation? I don't know. Where's Neil deGrasse Tyson when you need him?
Looks like my mother-in-law. I wonder if that one can cook a meatloaf without burning down the kitchen. Probably not, eh?
I’ll even settle for green women.
I tend to leave things on the stove until they catch fire. Meanwhile, I’m off somewhere, reading or just distracted by something, having wandered away from the kitchen. What can I say? My husband does the cooking at our house. I just warm things up.
if you say so
Are they where the 7 missing states are???
*snicker*
Checked your Kepler Wiki page which leads to this page:
http://jwleaf.org/docs/probability-of-planetary-transit.html
Those scientist-types think of everything. :-)
They picked the perfect "host" to play Robert Porter ... by demeanor and namesake.
Like I said guessing.
Sure, if Kepler's laws of planetary motion, calculus, geometry and mathematical probability are guessing, then yeah - it's just like guessing.
Another indication our public schools have failed us; People can't understand the discipline of observational science.
Dr. Mark Powell: What if I were to tell you that according to a man who lived on our planet, named Einstein, that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light?
Prot: I would say that you misread Einstein, Dr. Powell. May I call you Mark? You see Mark, what Einstein actually said was that nothing can accelerate to the speed of light because its mass would become infinite. Einstein said nothing about entities already traveling at the speed of light or faster.
I do. Our galaxy is one of billions. None has a special place that gives them a better view. Our planet is around a star that is one of billions, within that one galaxy. It has no special place that gives a better view. If anyone said we were in the perfect place to observe the universe, then they didn't understand very much about the universe.
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