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A whopping seven Earth-size planets were just found orbiting a nearby star
Popular Science ^ | February 22, 2017 | Sarah Fecht

Posted on 02/22/2017 11:21:30 AM PST by C19fan

Planet-hunters are always on the lookout for worlds that look like Earth—rocky planets that are not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to flow on the surface. Now scientists have hit the jackpot, discovering seven Earth-size exoplanets orbiting a single star just 39 light-years away. The star, named TRAPPIST-1, was thought to be home to three exoplanets. But with the help of a variety of observatories—including the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (a.k.a. TRAPPIST, the star's namesake), the Very Large Telescope in Chile, and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope—researchers found four more planets in the system. The planets were discovered as they passed in front of the star, blocking some of its light from Earth's point-of-view.

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


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; kepler; planets; science; trappist; trappist1; xplanets
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To: RedStateRocker

There may be planets with creatures who never fell, thus never needed redemption. C. S. Lewis wrote about that in his Space Trilogy.


81 posted on 02/22/2017 3:19:26 PM PST by SuziQ
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To: Gamecock

Thanks for the memory... I’ve visited most of the Trappist breweries and/or met with the brew masters.

My favorite all time beer is the Westmalle Triple. (third from the left.)

LaTrappe is in Holland and I have not been there... but their beer is excellent.

Many times I have gone to the Beer Festival in the Brussels Grande Place that is held the first weekend in September... 300+ Belgian beers for three days... Every other year there is a Bruxellensis a week later that is for Belgian sours and farmhouse ales. Me I like a good stiff lambic like La Cantillon..


82 posted on 02/22/2017 3:24:33 PM PST by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: WKUHilltopper

I like the idea of shipping the Donks to Mercury. The planet would be covered in the steam of liberal tears, now that Trump rules the roost.


83 posted on 02/22/2017 3:28:08 PM PST by bobcat62
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To: Snickering Hound

The Wiki page says it is an ultra-cool dwarf star, not a red dwarf.


84 posted on 02/22/2017 3:35:01 PM PST by Sawdring
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To: VaeVictis

So you saw ms dos and the pc coming?


85 posted on 02/22/2017 3:57:33 PM PST by Helotes ((Paging Dr. Feynman))
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To: tired&retired

Sadly I didn’t know anything about Belgian Ale until 2009, when my unit did a staff ride through the North Shoulder of the Battle of The Bulge site.

The first night I went down stairs for some quality time with the younger officers and Senior NCOs of the unit. One of the Lieutenants called me over and asked if I had ever had an ale. “No LT, I haven’t.” “Sit down Sir, let me teach you about this.”

Man, I was blown away. I had been drinking German beer for years, but I was not prepared for how good this nectar was. Over the next couple of days I tried several different labels.

Fast forward a couple of years, I gave a simple bottle of Chimay to my two top NCO’s for Christmas with instructions to put the bottles in the fridge about an hour before they were going to drink them, and not to plan on going anywhere afterwards.

A week later one of them came into my office and told me that he did like I instructed and started to drink the first glass. As he was sipping away, he thought “The Colonel doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about.” He poured the second glass and the next thing he knew he his wife was shaking him awake. He had an empty glass in his hand, resting on his chest, and it was dark out. He never felt a hang over in spite of the fact he had passed out 3 hours earlier.

The other NCO told me a similar story.

Great stuff.


86 posted on 02/22/2017 5:34:42 PM PST by Gamecock
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To: Emergencyawesome
#13 I always liked that alien women have big bazooka's.
Something to do with lower gravity I think...
Blnk
87 posted on 02/22/2017 7:07:24 PM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: Gamecock

Thanks for sharing... and thanks for your service.


88 posted on 02/22/2017 10:45:06 PM PST by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: IncPen

A perfect 2 state solution - all muslims can now have their own planet


89 posted on 02/22/2017 11:20:16 PM PST by Nailbiter
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To: Helotes

No, I’ve seen star trek but computers were well out by the time I was born. Lets put it this way, the earth spins around 1000 mph. We’ve beat that over four times with the X-15 (4,500 mph). A few years ago we tested the HVT-2 at 13,000 mph, but it failed twice. This was an unmanned vehicle. To reach FTL would be 182,000 mph+. So we are a long ways off from that.

As for human anatomy, I think this article sums up quickly some of the issues. This has to do mainly with the human tolerance of g-force.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/star-wars-science-light-speed/

- So uh, I guess we could go Borg. ;)


90 posted on 02/23/2017 5:26:07 AM PST by VaeVictis (~Woe to the Conquered~)
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To: DungeonMaster

Ping.

I’m sure you’ve heard. They’re all giddy with excitement.


91 posted on 02/23/2017 7:52:37 AM PST by newgeezer (It is [the people's] right and duty to be at all times armed. --Thomas Jefferson, 1824)
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To: newgeezer
I’m sure you’ve heard. They’re all giddy with excitement.

Yes they talked about it on AM radio this morning. The guy interviewed some female astronomer from NASA. He asked how they can detect these. They can detect extremely small changes in brightness of a star when a planet eclipses it. That resolution of measurement amazes me!

When they find a suspect she said "it is pretty much all hands on deck at that point". Then they use all of their instrumentation to measure spectra changes when the planet eclipses the star and try to determine hints about the atmosphere.

The "all hands" made me realize that this is like global warming. It is agenda driven. They really want to prove that there is life out there which opposes the bible.

92 posted on 02/23/2017 9:33:30 AM PST by DungeonMaster (Love your neighbor as you love yourself.)
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To: Bubba_Leroy
The most Earth-like planet ever discovered is almost the exact same size and mass as Earth and orbits at relatively close to the same orbit of a star that is identical in every respect to our own. In fact, the star is our own and the planet is called Venus.

I would not want to try and live there.

What's really amusing is that it would be orders of magnitude easier to inhabit Venus than a planet around another star. Hey if you can get over the tinge of sulfuric acid I'll sell you a condo in a Cytherean cloud city!

93 posted on 02/23/2017 12:42:39 PM PST by no-s (when democracy is displaced by tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote...)
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To: ealgeone

Will they allow Muslims on the flight ?


94 posted on 02/23/2017 2:15:10 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: Robert DeLong

95 posted on 02/23/2017 2:19:06 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: C19fan

.
These “science” whoppers are getting really tiresome.
.


96 posted on 02/23/2017 2:20:36 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Drew68
I could be wrong but it seems to me that most of the exo-planets they've found have been close and tidally-locked. These are probably the easiest planets to detect which would explain their abundance so far.

Let's put the shoe on the other foot.

If we lived on a planet around the STAR in this article, and looked back at Earth, would we be able to detect it ?

Wouldn't the chance to detect it only happen ONCE A YEAR ?

97 posted on 02/23/2017 2:22:07 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: beethovenfan

.
>> “I’ll explore ‘em when I have my new body.” <<

You’ll have to work fast, since the entire universe is scheduled to burn with fervent heat in 1000 years!
.


98 posted on 02/23/2017 2:24:29 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: VaeVictis

- So uh, I guess we could go Borg. ;)

Ha Ha!

Horses to cars, propeller planes to jets, coal to nuclear

Can you really be so sure you can predict the future?


99 posted on 02/24/2017 6:45:02 PM PST by Helotes ((Paging Dr. Feynman))
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To: Helotes

;) No, I am not saying it is impossible. I am just saying there is a lot to overcome, even our bodies present an issue. Most don’t realize how steep that cliff is, its not just being able to create a craft that can go that fast.

We’ve solved the issue of g-force before, and high altitude. So we’ll just have to wait and see if human ingenuity is up to this task.


100 posted on 02/27/2017 5:16:47 AM PST by VaeVictis (~Woe to the Conquered~)
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