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Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planets
The Daily Telegraph ^
| January 23, 2011
| Heidi Blake
Posted on 01/23/2011 9:38:58 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
They obviously didn’t look in Washington D.C.
To: LOC1
Let's see, we have found earth like life on one out of 501 planets (earth itself). That is a success rate of 0.2%. Now how many planets are there? Multiply that by 0.2% and the number of potential life supporting planets is very, very large. Lots of people talk about the number of potential planets that could support life. But the universe is a finite number of years old.
What if we're first?
22
posted on
01/23/2011 9:52:42 AM PST
by
paulycy
(Liberals suck all the joy out of America. Make them stop.)
To: Cincinatus' Wife
23
posted on
01/23/2011 9:53:18 AM PST
by
Mmogamer
(I refudiate the lamestream media, leftists and their prevaricutions.)
To: 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..." Hopefully, this moron is old, and will die before he's embarrassed for all time by this stupid, premature pronouncement. History is replete with examples of scientists making wildly inaccurate predictions.
I suppose that he never stopped to realize that it's just possible that his sample size is too small, and that the incidence of earthlike planets might be 1 in 10,000. Perhaps it's only one in a million.
This is yet another example of modern day scientists weakening the public's confidence in the field.
24
posted on
01/23/2011 9:53:25 AM PST
by
Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Ok, so they analyzed 500 liberals - what does that prove?
25
posted on
01/23/2011 9:53:35 AM PST
by
JaguarXKE
(Life - It's 10 percent circumstances and 90 percent how you react to circumstances - Sarah Palin)
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Pinheads like him have been making false conclusions since the beginning of time. He hasn’t seen but 0.0000000000001% of all planets, yet, he thinks that’s a good enough sample.
26
posted on
01/23/2011 9:55:22 AM PST
by
CodeToad
(Islam needs to be banned in the US and treated as a criminal enterprise.)
To: Mr. K
If he believes in global warming, then he already lives in an alternate universe, with skittle-pooping unicorns and such. How many planets were checked over there?
27
posted on
01/23/2011 9:56:02 AM PST
by
Tax Government
(Democrat: "I'm driving to Socialism at 95 mph." Republican: "Observe the speed limit.")
To: null and void
Given that our current extra-solar planet detection methods are best at finding super-massive planets close in to their primary star, it is hardly surprising that most of the planets discovered are hostile to life as we know it. You should take that idiot's job and his salary.
28
posted on
01/23/2011 9:57:25 AM PST
by
Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
To: JaguarXKE
Even if only .001 percent of stars have planets with life,
with billions of stars per galaxy and billions of galaxies,
that’s still a pretty big number.
29
posted on
01/23/2011 9:57:44 AM PST
by
Mmogamer
(I refudiate the lamestream media, leftists and their prevaricutions.)
To: Cincinatus' Wife
They are very hostile to life as we know it, he said.The same can be said about Planned Parenthood.
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard, made the claim that we are alone in the universe Professor Steven Vogt , of the Carnegie institution in Washington, said he had no doubt extraterrestrial life would be found
Ah, another one of those annoying articles where the headline totally contradicts the article.
31
posted on
01/23/2011 9:59:29 AM PST
by
lonevoice
(Where the Welfare State is on the march, the Police State is not far behind)
To: paulycy
Possible. Wouldn’t count on it though.
More likely we are alone than first.
To: Cincinatus' Wife
With comments like this, Dr. Smith is clearly an attention whore, and probably should not be teaching.
33
posted on
01/23/2011 10:02:58 AM PST
by
dragnet2
(Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
To: Tax Government
I confess to, and apologize for having taken cheap, joking shot at someone who said nothing ever afaik about global warming.
34
posted on
01/23/2011 10:03:10 AM PST
by
Tax Government
(Democrat: "I'm driving to Socialism at 95 mph." Republican: "Observe the speed limit.")
To: Cincinatus' Wife
500 planets isn’t even a drop in the proverbial bucket. I have no doubt extraterrestrial life is rare, given the conditions needed for a planet to be in the habitable zone. But impossible? If even only one out of a hundred million planets is capable of producing life as we understand it, that still leaves 40 or 50 likely candidates in the Milky Way galaxy alone.
There is, of course, also the possibility that life has evolved in ways we haven’t fully grasped. Don’t want to head off into Star Trek land, but we do have bacteria right here on Earth that feed on jet fuel and other exotic materials. It’s not impossible that there is some form of bacteria or other primitive life to be found in the seas of Titan and several other moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
35
posted on
01/23/2011 10:05:17 AM PST
by
DemforBush
(I got three passports, a couple of visas. You don't even know my real name..)
To: Cincinatus' Wife
They have not even seen a planet nor another solar system only the effects they have on the stars they orbit the tiny little tug on the stars themselves so how can they tell anything?
36
posted on
01/23/2011 10:06:28 AM PST
by
Lees Swrd
("Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well")
To: Windflier
We can’t even detect earth sized planets yet!
Let alone pinpoint the system location either. Anything over 50 light years away we could be out by a light year from the true distance. Lots of work still to do.
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planetsHeck, I can't find intelligent life amongst 500 democrats.
He's going to have to look harder.
38
posted on
01/23/2011 10:07:46 AM PST
by
Caipirabob
( Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
To: clamper1797
LOL I once worked in Australia and one local guy told me MAGPAIS was unike to Australia only, go figure
39
posted on
01/23/2011 10:08:46 AM PST
by
munin
(Enki did it,)
To: Cincinatus' Wife
But the 500 planets studied are the rule. Too cold, too hot, too irradiated, too something. Study 500 million planets and you’ll find the same thing: The conditions for intelligent life are incredibly, infinitesimally rare.
40
posted on
01/23/2011 10:09:01 AM PST
by
denydenydeny
(Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak-Adams)
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