Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planets

The Daily Telegraph ^ | January 23, 2011 | Heidi Blake

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard, made the claim that we are alone in the universe after an analysis of the 500 planets discovered so far showed all were hostile to life.

Dr Smith said the extreme conditions found so far on planets discovered outside out Solar System are likely to be the norm, and that the hospitable conditions on Earth could be unique.

“We have found that most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own. They are very hostile to life as we know it,” he said.

He pointed to stars such as HD10180, which sparked great excitement when it was found to be orbited by a planet of similar size and appearance to Earth.

But the similarities turned out to be superficial. The planet lies less than two million miles from its sun, meaning it is roasting hot, stripped of its atmosphere and blasted by radiation.

Many of the other planets have highly elliptical orbits which cause huge variations in temperature which prevent water remaining liquid, thus making it impossible for life to develop.

A separate team of scientists recently declared the chance of aliens existing on a newly discovered Earth-like planet “100 per cent”.

Professor Steven Vogt , of the Carnegie institution in Washington, said he had “no doubt” extraterrestrial life would be found on a small, rocky planet found orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581 last September.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Quix. Another problem with the story is, the purported discoverer is otherwise unknown — never had anyone by that name with the Smithsonian for example. Also, the off-limits areas are either too dangerous for hikers / canoeists and/or are environmentally sensitive. There are also no folkloric claims to any of this supposed stuff by any of the area tribes, and if this vast underground structure existed, it would be claimed, no doubt about it.

Funny thing about humans, they tend to settle in the same places over and over again, and tend to eschew places which are hard to get to, or hard to feed. So, for example, in the Phoenix area the remains of a canal system have been (mostly) destroyed by urban sprawl, but when European settlement began the valley was basically empty by comparison with whatever large settlement had been there (the one which built the canals, then disappeared). Not as much fun as Egyptians in the Grand Canyon, but probably more interesting. :’)

http://www.keelynet.com/unclass/canyon.txt

[Quix]

Understand.

It was a grand yarn, however. LOL.

Thanks for your elaborations.

[SaraJohnson]

Would you mind putting me on this ping list? Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic was posted 1/23/2011. Thanks Cincinatus' Wife.

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