It's bizarro world!
Or is that Wash. DC I'm thinking of?
Posted on 02/14/2008 11:44:10 PM PST by neverdem
Astronomers said Wednesday that they had found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light-years across the galaxy — the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets.
“It looks like a scale model of our solar system,” said Scott Gaudi, an assistant professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. Dr. Gaudi led an international team of 69 professional and amateur astronomers who announced the discovery in a news conference with reporters.
Their results are being published Friday in the journal Science. The discovery, they said, means that our solar system may be more typical of planetary systems across the universe than had been thought.
In the newly discovered system, a planet about two-thirds of the mass of Jupiter and another about 90 percent of the mass of Saturn are orbiting a reddish star at about half the distances that Jupiter and Saturn circle our own Sun. The star is about half the mass of the Sun.
Neither of the two giant planets is a likely abode for life as we know it. But, Dr. Gaudi said, warm rocky planets — suitable for life — could exist undetected in the inner parts of the system.
“This could be a true solar system analogue,” he said.
Sara Seager, a theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not part of the team, said that “right now in exoplanets we are on an inexorable path to finding other Earths.” Dr. Seager praised the discovery as “a big step in finding out if our planetary system is alone.”
Since 1995, around 250 planets outside the solar system, or exoplanets, have been discovered. But few of them are in systems that even faintly resemble our own. In many cases...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping
Bottled City of Kandor?
That’s where Hobbits and such live.
Everybody in that system drives a Prius. Or a clown car.
Or is there a difference?
We are alone.
:-(
Among the billions of galaxies, nothing will match Earth. We are alone.Maybe you need to buy a bigger telescope.
So when do I move in?
No crap? Well, better alert all the scientists of the world, tell ‘em to just quit now. Wish I had your omniscience.
It's bizarro world!
Or is that Wash. DC I'm thinking of?
I feel sad for you. I don't feel alone.
Hubris is one thing. Is there a word to describe this position? Geocentric is far too simple. Even the Jesuits recognize that God created the ENTIRE universe and all within it.
Perhaps thecabal can deign to share its knowledge of the entire universe, and its conviction that humans are the ONLY one HE has any interest in with we mere mortal humans. I’m sure that local...angels are curious too. BG.
“Among the billions of galaxies, nothing will match Earth.”
That is more a matter of faith and pride.
But we simply cannot prove it. Ever.
No. We are just on our own. And so are they.
There are other ‘intelligent life forms’ much closer to us, that we have yet to discover.
So, we are not as alone as we might think.
Even with liquid methane oceans, there’s gonna be beach traffic.
“Perhaps thecabal can deign to share its knowledge of the entire universe, and its conviction that humans are the ONLY one HE has any interest in with we mere mortal humans.”
God isn’t what we think he is, and doesn’t think like we do.
So, if God has other ‘interests’, it’s not like we can do anything about it.
They may be smaller but they're feisty.
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · | ||
Heh, your pessimism in the face of facts to the contrary resembles that of a Democrat opposing progress in Iraq.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
