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Odds of Life on Nearby Planet '100 Percent,' Astronomer Says
Fox News ^ | 9/30/2010 | Fox News

Posted on 09/30/2010 4:04:03 PM PDT by Dallas59



An Earth-size planet has been spotted orbiting a nearby star at a distance that would makes it not too hot and not too cold -- comfortable enough for life to exist, researchers announced Wednesday.

If confirmed, the exoplanet, named Gliese 581g, would be the first Earth-like world found residing in a star's habitable zone -- a region where a planet's temperature could sustain liquid water on its surface.[Illustration of planet Gliese 581g.]

And the planet's discoverers are optimistic about the prospects for finding life there.

"Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say, my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent," said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, during a press briefing today.

"I have almost no doubt about it."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: exoplanet; planet; xplanets
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To: fwdude

religious superstition aside, if there is liquid water it bodes well for the chance of life... But 100%? Unless we get an e-mail from that planet I dont think so.....


61 posted on 09/30/2010 5:01:28 PM PDT by Bones75
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To: Dallas59
"Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say, my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent," said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, during a press briefing today.

Poor boob. "given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can" except where it cannot, which, in our experience to date is everywhere we've looked outside of earth. In addition, if the chances of life being spontaneously generated on earth and developing to the present state are ridiculously small, then the chances of it happening elsewhere just one other time are those chances times those chances and so on for each separate iteration one wants to posit.
62 posted on 09/30/2010 5:04:14 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: fwdude

God could take care of affairs to His own pleasure on, say, Gliese without needing to tell Earthlings about it (and from Gliesians’ point of view, without needing to tell Gliesians about anything that happened on Earth). Nothing from our bible tells us whether or not Gliese is a creation-free zone. If the musings of the late C. S. Lewis are on track, Glieseians need not even be fallen.


63 posted on 09/30/2010 5:04:59 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: RobRoy

I love the fact that, on a science-y thread, post 31 was listed ABOVE posts 32 and 33 on my “most recent” posts listing. ;-P


64 posted on 09/30/2010 5:05:10 PM PDT by MortMan (Obama's "son of man" was subject to abortion.)
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To: Dallas59

It’s only 120 trillion miles from Earth. So with the way that Obama and the dems spend the money we don’t have, we should be there within 10 years.


65 posted on 09/30/2010 5:07:37 PM PDT by Gator113 (Beauty will devour the Beast in 2012. Kill "Obamamosque"@ Ground Zero)
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To: dirtymac

http://www.reasons.org/


66 posted on 09/30/2010 5:08:39 PM PDT by ken21 (who runs the gop?)
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To: Dallas59

How a liberal thinks....

An entire world of new voters and taxpayers. What a find !!


67 posted on 09/30/2010 5:12:12 PM PDT by Bud Krieger (Another President, another idiot....)
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To: kitkat

Laughing at me now?
No sex, I’m not here!
And now I am a laughing stock!

Just for that, I’m staying. Let THAT be a lesson to you!


68 posted on 09/30/2010 5:15:19 PM PDT by irishtenor (Tag lines, they are not what they used to be...)
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To: cripplecreek
[ Maybe but I’m 100% certain that such assertions are stupid. ]

LoL... (EDDIE MURPHY LAUGH)...

69 posted on 09/30/2010 5:19:48 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Bingo. I doubt that God would be satisfied in creating only Human Beings.


70 posted on 09/30/2010 5:20:16 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Not to get too far into the heresy that got Giordano Bruno burned - but who knows what the salvation requirements of some hypothetical intelligent being on a different planet?

But life is one thing, intelligent tool using life something else entirely. Life existed for a long time on Earth before something intelligent came around.

But given the size of the Universe, thinking that this grand spectacle is all here for us seems the ultimate in hubris.

71 posted on 09/30/2010 5:26:17 PM PDT by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Man was created in God’s image, we believe from the testimony of the bible. If God granted the same favor to another race of creature with which He populated Gliese, and then engineered their salvation if they fell, that would be an interesting scene in heaven — if the two races were ever allowed to meet.


72 posted on 09/30/2010 5:27:41 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: Jolla

Bottom line: I think some of us have been watching way to much Star Trek.


73 posted on 09/30/2010 5:31:23 PM PDT by fwdude (Anita Bryant was right.)
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To: allmendream

To argue the other side of the coin, if God wanted to spread forth this giga-giga-giga-huge spectacle we call a universe and put the crown jewel of His creation in only one little spot on it we call earth... there doesn’t mean God makes any less sense. It’s a biblical assertion that everything in the visible cosmos shows the glory of God in some fashion. (A corollary would be that there would be no such thing as a “pure” evil although that does not rule out the existence of a devil.)


74 posted on 09/30/2010 5:33:45 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: driftdiver
What would the chances be this life would find us in the vastness of the universe right now.

100%

75 posted on 09/30/2010 5:39:50 PM PDT by InternetTuffGuy
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To: fwdude

On this subject, I highly recommend the book “A wrinkle in time”. It is actually a “Christian” book that discusses Jesus, Satan, and amazing life forms on other worlds.

Interestingly, it fits within a Biblical perspective. Mine, at least.


76 posted on 09/30/2010 5:42:18 PM PDT by RobRoy (The US Today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: irishtenor

Oh, good! STAY. I had you mixed up with Rob Boy, the Gustonian. But if you’re an Irish Tenor stay, PLEASE. We need more Irish Tenors.


77 posted on 09/30/2010 5:44:40 PM PDT by kitkat (OBAMA hates us. Well, maybe a LOT of Kenyans do.)
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To: RobRoy

“No wonder conservatives are skeptical of scientists.”

This is indefensible a statement as the astronomers “100% chance of life” statement.

Why would conservatism be correlated with skepticism of scientists?

This individual astronomer is just an idiot that will say because you can’t prove him wrong with hard evidence that he must be right without providing hard evidence.


78 posted on 09/30/2010 5:56:52 PM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: cripplecreek
Brunnen G

I'm probably one of the 3 people on FR that knows that series and actually enjoyed it for all the camp.

79 posted on 09/30/2010 6:07:25 PM PDT by Malsua
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To: twister881
Class M planet...

You just beat me!

80 posted on 09/30/2010 6:07:33 PM PDT by The Duke
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