Posted on 06/16/2008 10:57:17 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NASA image from the Spitzer Space Telescope shows a fledgling solar system. European astronomers say they have located dozens of giant planets in three distant solar systems. European astronomers say they have located dozens of giant planets in three distant solar systems. (AFP/NASA/File/Ho)
Since we have no idea what the conditions that give rise to life are, how will we identify planets with similar ones?
Given the findings of the past few years, I would hate to bet the rent money that there is no life out there.
Ping
They’re grasping at straws.
Life on Earth happened because God created it to support life, and he then acted supernaturally to create life.
If any othe planet ever has life, it will be for the same reason.
I would find it extreamely dissapointing and a major let down that in this amazing incredible universe, we’re all alone.
There’s life out there. Similar, different, in forms beyond our narrow imagination.
They’re trying to find my home.
:p
Of course we have an idea of conditions required to sustain life, as we know it anyway.
The recent batch of exoplanets were all spotted with the High-Accuracy Radial-Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), a 3.6-metre telescope and spectograph
A spectroscope or spectograph aids in analyzing light to determine elements, gas and material present.
Agree. I can only hope a life form is discovered outside of this planet...Micro organisms or whatever, while I am still around.
What a show that would create on this planet!
Hmm. You never know what sort of useful information these science reporters are going to come up with...
Some years ago I read a cheesy sci fi novel about settlers on a planet populated by dinosaur type creatures. The struggle against the dinosaurs was a problem but the real problems came from protesters on earth.
errr.. yeah.. except in leap years. ;-)
I can see why these are referred to as "super-earths"...why they're so similiar to earth that it's astounding. /s
Actually, our orbit is not 365 days. It's slightly longer than that if I'm not mistaken.
They are called super-Earths based on their mass. They aren’t big, gas giants, but in the mass realm where they could be general structure of the earth - rocky planets and not big gas balls. But they fit a size range not found in our solar ssytem - between Earth and the gas giants. That’s about the depth of the similarity.
God is so awesome!!!!
I’ll give them a bit of a break - there’s no way they could detect an earth sized planet around a distant star, given the way they detect them - the wobble factor.
But it’s really begging the question to refer to these planets as anything similar to earth.
The requirements for life on earth as we know it make the odds incredibly against finding another that is even somewhat similar in our galaxy.
The moon and its formation, the gas giants, the type of star that we have, the distance from that star, the location of that star in the galaxy, the type of galaxy, many more factors - all are important, and rare.
Al Gore immediately booked a trip to visit each of them, stating "It's important that we prevent global warming from occurring on these earth-like worlds"
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