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NASA Scientists gather in Santa Clara to ponder life beyond Earth (SETIcon)
Mercury News ^ | 6/23/12 | Lisa M. Krieger

Posted on 06/23/2012 8:13:17 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

We may not be alone.

But our cosmic companions might be moist creatures in watery worlds -- lacking, of course, E.T.'s impulse, or ability, to phone home.

The growing evidence of wet planets -- and its implications in our search for extraterrestrial life -- is among the marvels shared this weekend at a Santa Clara gathering of astronomers, astronauts and science fiction fans.

The theme of the three-day SETIcon event: the exploration of universe and the quest to find life beyond Earth.

Scientists agreed that the neighborhood is looking a lot friendlier.

What began as a trickle of new planet discoveries a decade ago has turned into a torrent -- and not all places are rocky, gaseous or just plain weird.

Of the 3,000 or so candidate planets found so far by Kepler -- a NASA mission designed to find Earth-size planets around other stars -- several hundred of them share one special characteristic: a density of nearly 1 gram per cubic centimeter.

That's the density of water.

And, it could be prime real estate, said longtime planet hunter Geoff Marcy of University of California-Berkeley, speculating that these planets are composed of 30 to 70 percent water. "They're not pure rock," he said. "They're not pure gas. These are planets that are composed almost certainly of water."

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Chit/Chat; Science; UFO's
KEYWORDS: life; nasa; ponder; scientists; xplanets
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1 posted on 06/23/2012 8:13:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge
carbon can break apart and re-assemble into many forms. Maybe, for instance, amino acids. Or proteins. Or even DNA, the blueprint of life.

LOL! Not without some help.

2 posted on 06/23/2012 8:18:52 PM PDT by HerrBlucher
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To: NormsRevenge

NASA scientists ponder how many aliens can dance on the head of a pin?


3 posted on 06/23/2012 8:19:12 PM PDT by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: NormsRevenge

And just WHO is to say that ‘alien life’ is, somehow MORE intelligent?


4 posted on 06/23/2012 8:24:17 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Wings cannot be redistributed, they can only be broken. ~ Oleg Atbashian (People's Cube))
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

The theory goes something like:

Any alien life that comes to earth has to be more intelligent than ours because they have mastered interstellar travel where we have not.

I don’t think they apply that line of reasoning to finding any kinds of life on other planets. I mean, no one is saying that some bacteria on a planet 300 million billion miles from here is more intelligent than us.

More intelligent than the liberals, maybe...but not us.


5 posted on 06/23/2012 8:30:58 PM PDT by Personal Responsibility (Behind enemy lines in the city where it's illegal to buy a Big Gulp)
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To: NormsRevenge
...and if they can get another gubmnt grant, they can continue their "research".


6 posted on 06/23/2012 8:35:10 PM PDT by Delta 21 (Oh Crap !! Did I say that out loud ??!??)
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To: Personal Responsibility

And just WHO is to say they have mastered interstellar travel????

Just the same , old, eugenics philosophy.


7 posted on 06/23/2012 8:36:29 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Wings cannot be redistributed, they can only be broken. ~ Oleg Atbashian (People's Cube))
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To: NormsRevenge

Headline: Scientists Gather To Make Sure Humans Are Irrelevant And must Be Killed For The Good Of The Planet.....Because We Say So


8 posted on 06/23/2012 8:39:15 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Wings cannot be redistributed, they can only be broken. ~ Oleg Atbashian (People's Cube))
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To: NormsRevenge

I have been a great proponent of the SETI radio program
(listening for radio signals from ET).
There was mention of listening as far back as the late 50s.
The theory was that high power VHF TV signals, started in the late 30s, and not reflected by the ionosphere, could have reached a distant star system and a reply directed back our way.

I am, however, quite skeptical that Earth has been visited, or that any intelligent life lives within 20, or more, light years of earth, despite all the chattering on Kook to Kook AM.
Within the rest of my lifetime, I would like to be proven wrong.


9 posted on 06/23/2012 8:42:19 PM PDT by AlexW
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

If “they” come “here” and are not from a planet in our system they have interstellar travel.

Has nothing to do with eugenics - and very likely nothing to do with reality at all.


10 posted on 06/23/2012 8:46:42 PM PDT by Personal Responsibility (Behind enemy lines in the city where it's illegal to buy a Big Gulp)
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To: NormsRevenge

I’m just wondering how long until we get a picture of the ancient alien guy from history channel posted on this thread?


11 posted on 06/23/2012 8:46:50 PM PDT by barmag25
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To: NormsRevenge

I was just at that place for a business convention. This sounds much more interesting!


12 posted on 06/23/2012 8:55:10 PM PDT by Moonmad27 ("I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." Jessica Rabbit)
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To: NormsRevenge

We need to find intelligent life in Washington D.C. first!


13 posted on 06/23/2012 9:41:05 PM PDT by Dallas59 (President Robert Gibbs 2009-2011)
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

Well, if the Darwinists and the Big Bang theorists are right, then there must be life out there on countless planets, and some would be less intelligent, some more intelligent. By that reasoning, though, we should have seen some sign of it by now. Instead, we’ve got zip, zilch, nada.

I think their fundamental hypotheses are flawed, so I’m not holding my breath for an alien transmission or UFO landing.


14 posted on 06/24/2012 12:02:21 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: KevinDavis

space ping


15 posted on 06/24/2012 1:29:29 AM PDT by Captain Beyond (The Hammer of the gods! (Just a cool line from a Led Zep song))
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To: Flag_This

That would be microbiology.


16 posted on 06/24/2012 5:58:35 AM PDT by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear
And just WHO is to say that ‘alien life’ is, somehow MORE intelligent?

Have you actually MET an Obama voter? (If you had, you'd know the answer to your question is a resounding YES, they are!)

17 posted on 06/24/2012 6:09:31 AM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: jmcenanly
"That would be microbiology."

Intergalactic voyeurism just doesn't work for me. Wake me up when they can put people on Mars.

18 posted on 06/24/2012 6:10:56 AM PDT by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: Personal Responsibility
Any alien life that comes to earth has to be more intelligent than ours because they have mastered interstellar travel where we have not.

Visiting aliens wouldn't have to be any more intelligent than humans to have mastered interstellar travel. Their cultures would simply have to be older. We'll likely master interstellar travel ourselves (provided we don't kill ourselves off first) within another hundred years.

19 posted on 06/24/2012 6:41:53 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Boogieman
Well, if the Darwinists and the Big Bang theorists are right, then there must be life out there on countless planets, and some would be less intelligent, some more intelligent. By that reasoning, though, we should have seen some sign of it by now.

You're assuming that they'd even want to contact a violent, insane species like us.

Looking at us from a technologically superior extraterrestrial's viewpoint, we might well be worth studying or keeping an eye on, but open contact would probably be out of the question. Wouldn't want to risk being contaminated with whatever's infected us, you know?

20 posted on 06/24/2012 6:48:53 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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