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We are not alone: 'trillions' of planets could be supporting life
Times Online ^ | 02/15/09 | Mark Henderson

Posted on 02/15/2009 11:03:43 AM PST by KevinDavis

Trillions of planets that are capable of harbouring life are probably orbiting Sun-like stars, making it almost certain that humanity is not alone in the Universe, a leading astronomer said yesterday.

The discovery of hundreds of planets around distant stars in our galaxy suggests that most solar systems have a world like ours that is capable of supporting life, and many of them are likely to have evolved it, according to Alan Boss, of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: space; xplanets
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I think so.. In all fairness who would want to visit this frakin pile of crap..
1 posted on 02/15/2009 11:03:43 AM PST by KevinDavis
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To: markman46; AntiKev; wastedyears; ALOHA RONNIE; RightWhale; anymouse; Brett66; SunkenCiv; ...

2 posted on 02/15/2009 11:04:15 AM PST by KevinDavis (No one should question our "Dear Leader"!)
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To: KevinDavis

As Enrico Fermi famously asked many years ago, “where is everybody?”


3 posted on 02/15/2009 11:06:26 AM PST by jpl (Help us Obambi Wan Kenobi, you're our only dope.)
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To: KevinDavis
Hmmm do any of them look like this?


4 posted on 02/15/2009 11:07:36 AM PST by exist
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To: jpl; All
It could be the following:
1. Very advance civilization, don't care to visit us
2. At our technological level
3. Just starting out..
5 posted on 02/15/2009 11:08:01 AM PST by KevinDavis (No one should question our "Dear Leader"!)
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To: KevinDavis

Trillions?? Then it should be no problem to prove out just one, eh?


6 posted on 02/15/2009 11:11:13 AM PST by Phillipian
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To: exist

Green chicks are hot.


7 posted on 02/15/2009 11:13:21 AM PST by Big_Monkey
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To: Phillipian
Trillions might work out to 40-50 in each galaxy. Ours is average sized and would take hundreds of thousands of years to cross at light speed.

The universe is a very large place.

8 posted on 02/15/2009 11:14:35 AM PST by muir_redwoods (I finally agree; the President is an Ass)
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To: exist
I don't know but I'd sure go to that planet.

It's hard for me to believe there is not life out there somewhere else in the infinite universe. If there is life that has evolved into intelligent beings they probably don't look a whole lot like us. Even if they were humanoid looking if temperatures and gravity were different there they'd look a lot different. In a cold place with high gravity they'd probably be short and squat and hairy. If we were stuck on an alien planet we'd probably be on one with the ugly women.

9 posted on 02/15/2009 11:15:09 AM PST by SmallGovRepub
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To: exist

Did you body paint her against her will, you prevert?


10 posted on 02/15/2009 11:16:10 AM PST by 353FMG (Trust in Glock.)
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To: KevinDavis

They would visit earth just to laugh at us. Probably look at obama and say : “ see? they select their leaders based on stupidity. Time for invasion.”


11 posted on 02/15/2009 11:19:28 AM PST by max americana
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To: KevinDavis

Cool! Hope they are conservatives.


12 posted on 02/15/2009 11:19:45 AM PST by mom.mom
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To: max americana; All

Obama will just surrender without a fight..


13 posted on 02/15/2009 11:20:18 AM PST by KevinDavis (No one should question our "Dear Leader"!)
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To: 353FMG
Did you body paint her against her will, you prevert?

I wish. That totally would've been worth 2-5 years.

14 posted on 02/15/2009 11:21:08 AM PST by exist
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To: SmallGovRepub

Moses 1:33 And worlds without number have I created.


15 posted on 02/15/2009 11:24:51 AM PST by Dan(9698)
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To: KevinDavis

“Some planets are even likely to have produced intelligent organisms and civilisations, though our chances of locating one of these are remote, Dr Boss said. “Enrico Fermi, the University of Chicago physicist back in the Fifties, said: ‘Where are they?’. The answers at that time ranged from the practical to the suicidal. The suicidal point of view was that maybe it just means that civilisations that are capable of sending us radio signals just don’t last very long. Maybe we’ve only got 1,000 years to go, maybe 10,000. Maybe stars like ours produced life a billion years ago, or will do so a billion years from now.”

This is the most creative argument for Global Warming I’ve read yet, just imagine, a trillion planets, a trillion Al Gores, a trillion...


16 posted on 02/15/2009 11:27:28 AM PST by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, then writes again.)
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To: KevinDavis
This is an optimist versus pessimists game and I tend more towards the 'Rare Earth Hypothesis' than this concept that the Earth and life are common. The relatively new concept of Galaxies having a 'life zone' where hard radiation is within acceptable limits reduces the 'Drake Equation' greatly. Add to it that there may be some life forms so outre as to be unidentifiable and thus non-communicative, and we might be a solitary natural accident OR a Deity event. Right now I am waiting for further study because there is insufficient proof in either direction.
17 posted on 02/15/2009 11:31:27 AM PST by SES1066 (Cycling to conserve, Conservative to save, Saving to Retire, will Retire to Cycle.)
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To: SES1066

I agree with you about Rare Earth. In my opinion, that sums up the situation. Not only do you have to be far enough from the center of a galaxy to escape the worst of the radiation, but you have to be close enough in to get plenty of metals in your planetary makeup. It’s a thin band around the galactic core that meets those two qualifications.


18 posted on 02/15/2009 11:43:49 AM PST by samtheman
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To: KevinDavis

I think it’s incredibly stupid to assume there is no other forms of life in other universes and galaxies.


19 posted on 02/15/2009 11:43:58 AM PST by autumnraine (Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose- Kris Kristopherson)
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To: autumnraine; All

I agree..


20 posted on 02/15/2009 11:45:46 AM PST by KevinDavis (No one should question our "Dear Leader"!)
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