Scientists pleasantly surprised by number of Earth-size, distant planets

CNN ^ | 2/19/11

[KevinDavis]

Where might extraterrestrials live? The first step is figuring out what other planets out there have conditions like our own.

Scientists using NASA's Kepler space telescope are working hard to find candidates for inhabitable planets. So far, it seems that for approximately every two stars in the galaxy, there is one possible planet, NASA's William Borucki said Saturday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Washington.

[barb-tex]

Don’t forget, without NASA we could not study Globull Warming or even give a kiss the floor bow to the Muzzies. Cancel their ticket or get them back to space. Not one dime for anything else.
I hope, however advanced the little green men are, I have no desire to become their slave. LEAVE US ALONE!

[Texas Eagle]

What does that even mean?

[Cementjungle]

Would we recognize those signals? A civilization advanced enough to travel between stars with regularity would likely develop some kind of faster than light communications that we're unable to detect.

Perhaps. But, based on the law of averages, some civilizations wouldn't be that advanced... some would be where we are, or behind us. Wouldn't we spot old probes, old ships, signals, etc. floating around out there?

[Texas Eagle]

Exactly. If NASA is so all-fired important to our lives, then I'm sure they'll be able to fund whatever projects they want to pursue by taking advantage of The Free Market.

Trust me, life would go on without NASA and scientific advancements might even flourish.

That muffled applauding you hear is Ben Franklin giving me a standing O from his grave.

[cripplecreek]

based on the law of averages, some civilizations wouldn't be that advanced... some would be where we are, or behind us. Wouldn't we spot old probes, old ships, signals, etc. floating around out there?

Considering the fact that our most distant probes have only just left the solar system after some 35 years and are still some 50,000 years from reaching even the closest star. We aren't going to be finding anything left by other similar civilizations in our own solar system for at least 50,000 years.

[Aroostook25]

I didn’t say “no jobs”.

I said “Gobs and gobs of jobs”.

As in — more jobs.

[beethovenfan]

And this helps us how????

[Texas Eagle]

Oh, you were being sarcastic. Sorry.

[Cementjungle]

Considering the fact that our most distant probes have only just left the solar system after some 35 years and are still some 50,000 years from reaching even the closest star. We aren't going to be finding anything left by other similar civilizations in our own solar system for at least 50,000 years.

If there is other life, some of it might be a mere 100,000 years or so ahead of us... and might have left behind some junk for us to spot in our backyard somewhere.

[BenLurkin]

Good catch.

[Aroostook25]

I remember the late 1960’s when aerospace jobs resulted in high school grads going into engineering and science.
Students had an incentive to excel in science and math.

Now there is no challenging frontier like we had in the 1960’s.

Now science, math and engineering are at the bottom below all the social services — in schools, in colleges, and in the federal government.

India and China will go to the planets and stars before Americans do — if America lets social services suffocate productive science and engineering.

[sphinx]

Chances are, Fermi was right.

But since faster than light travel is probably not possible outside of sci-fi, we'll never really know.

[KevinDavis]

Never say never..

[Salman]

Pleasantly surprised implies an agenda. This is not science.

Utter horseshit, you anti science bigot.

[BenKenobi]

“Venus is likely too hot but we haven’t done much study.”

As in ‘cleaning your oven’ hot.

[Sarajevo]

Luckily, those outlying planets are far enough away to have been spared reruns of “Dezi and Lucy”. Once they see those, we’ve had it!

[ak267]

Any class M worlds in 40 Eridani ???

Perhaps Leonard Nimoy knows ;)

[JimRed]

...and surely we would have found some evidence of that somewhere by now.

The distances and time spans are so vast, and we've been at it such a short time that I'd be surprised if we had found evidence.

[PIF]

Space is huge.. We are only a speck of sand in this cosmic beach...

—

Since the Universe may be (conservatively) 250 times the current estimate, the Earth may be an electron in a sea of sand on a cosmic-sized beach may be a more apt comparison.

[PIF]

So, withoue NASA, there would be no jobs in technology, manufacturing and science?

—

Of course there would be! Only jobs in those products and areas which were prominent in the 1950s would exist in the US; the flourishing Soviet Union would be the leader in all things space, science, and technology related.