Looking for other Earths? Here’s a list

msnbc.com ^ | 02/19/06 | Alan Boyle

[KevinDavis]

ST. LOUIS - An astronomer involved in a NASA mission to look for Earthlike planets beyond our solar system has winnowed through thousands of stars to come up with a top-10 list that includes some of the favorite haunts for science-fiction aliens.

Actually, the lineup from Margaret Turnbull at the Carnegie Institute of Washington is broken down into two top-five lists: one for the radio-based search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, and the other for the NASA mission, known as the Terrestrial Planet Finder.

The SETI stars will be on the list of targets for the privately funded Allen Telescope Array in California, which is due to begin limited operation with 42 linked radio dishes this spring. But the top prospects for the Terrestrial Planet Finder are currently in limbo, because NASA has put the mission on indefinite hold.

[RightWhale]

Well then, somebody ought to do something about that. :)

[lmr]

LMAO

[longshadow]

Well then, somebody ought to do something about that. :)

Mass chanting will commence shortly (if it hasn't already)....

;-)

[RightWhale]

It's a plan.

[PatrickHenry]

Well then, somebody ought to do something about that.

I'm stocking up on ice cubes. Ain't no heat death gonna get me. If you had any brains you'd follow my example.

[RightWhale]

No no no. Stock hot water bottles and sock warmers. The universe is about to become pure crystalline cold.

[longshadow]

It's a plan.

In the loosest sense of the word...

[Heatseeker]

Omicron Persei 8 didn't seem to make the list. Won't this make Lrrr angry? OTOH, "Joey" is now scheduled against "American Idol" which is larger and will probably eat him. ;)

[Matchett-PI]

Thanks! I love it!

[beezdotcom]

"If our knowledge of the Universe is so paltry, how is that the angular power spectrum predictions [of the] Lamda-CDM model fit the actual measured data so well?"

Ummm...because we know enough to make predictions that are borne out by the data.

I notice you've never bothered to tell me how much more there is to learn. Shouldn't take you long - what, only one or two nuggets of knowledge left, yes?

[beezdotcom]

The mysteries of the Universe are apparently undeciperable:

No, but the purpose of your weak strawmen IS undecipherable. Help the mods prepare the servers for this thread - how many well-known elements of knowledge about the universe are there, and how many of them do you plan to post? Then, tell them how many bits of extra storage (2? 3?) to add to the server farm so that they'll be sure to capture all the REST of the total knowledge about the universe, once we "cap it all off". (should be next week, right?)

[TheForceOfOne]

lol

[Bender2]

What! Omicron Persei 8 is not on the list? Heatseeker, I smell the scent of your plartitee in this! I shall be forced to tear your glukencark from your blindnerk by the roots...

You must halt, Lrrr. I see the suns of Jafasser are in the 3rd splark of Rumamabinbic... It is Vrxxjaho!

Euuuuuuu! Heatseeker, chance has smiled on you, I cannot touch a human's glukencark during Vrxxjaho...

Is anybody going to kill anyone, or are ya'll just jerking me around?

Well, I could just give Heatseeker a colostomy...

That will do nicely.

Heatseeker, your in a real peck of shinola, ya know?

Hell! I thought that hick was your friend? That's how he got in...

Heatseeker goes under the knife!

Film at 11...

In sports tonight, we have a partial score... Old Miss 8.

[beezdotcom]

While I fully agree with the thrust of your essay, it is stuffy, a bit pompous and, as a consequence, annoying.

It was also aimed in the wrong direction. As far as I can tell, he's been arguing on the crevo threads so long that he can't accept that a humble musing about the potentially vast sea of untapped knowledge could be anything other than an attack on science. On this thread, it appears that he shredded some newbie for no other reason than that the guy used some sentence that sounded vaguely similar to something a creationist might say - and it's been pomposity exemplified ever since.

[Bender2]

You know, with these pecs...

You'd think I would get more action...

[beezdotcom]

You pompous know-it-all pointy-headed science types are all destined for the lake of fire!

Don't be so hard on yourselves. Besides, since apparently there's virtually nothing left to learn in the field of science, perhaps you could turn it into a nice holiday by the lake.

[NCC-1701]

Do you think Khan senses the inevitability of it all?

[gore_sux]

Maybe you should take a closer look on a more local level before jumping to the origins of the universe:

' Tenth Planet' Bigger Than Pluto

Astronomers Had it Wrong: Most Stars are Single

The Universe: The new Axis of Evil

Big Bang Theory Challenged -- Many Stars May Be Living Unseen

It seems to me that your models and theories are still in a state of flux, while the original statement "we don't know jack squat about the universe" still stands as fact.

The very link you provided has several "corrections" made by scientists on previous "knowledge":

New Age for the Universe

This could be a case where the effects of good Italian wine overwhelmed the scientific super-ego of Kolb et al.

[beezdotcom]

The funniest thing is that if you make an objective, quantitative assessment on where I stand and where he stands on issues of hard science, I doubt there's much disagreement. In fact, he would probably really have enjoyed my undergradutate thesis on "microcracks in granites as an explanation for Polonium-210 pleiochroic haloes in biotites."

Unfortunately, he's already jumped to the conclusion that my mere support of a metaphoric statement is somehow a threat to his entire scientific weltanschaaung. He sees any metaphor as the telltale footfall of a creationist - and the mere possibility that science might only be 10% completed instead of 90% completed also seems to make him terribly insecure. How else to explain his curious passive/aggressive stance of randomly tossing out well-known successful scientific predictions that nobody here disagrees with?

[Bender2]

Well, I have heard that Khan has tried some alternatives...

You have you hand around your doctor's neck, Khan...

And if you don't let go...
Boy are you going to get a kiss to remember!

Are then feller talking that Brokeitback Mountain lingo?