Posted on 12/06/2011 6:40:24 AM PST by Red Badger
New planet discovery excites scientists: the discovery of a new planet 600 light years away with roughly the right temperature for plant and animal habitation is causing a buzz in the science community. Though much larger than Earth, scientists haven't ruled out the possibility of life being discovered.
A newly discovered planet is eerily similar to Earth and is sitting outside Earth's solar system in what seems to be the ideal place for life, except for one hitch. It is a bit too big.
The planet is smack in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone, that hard to find place that is not too hot, not too cold, where water, which is essential for life, does not freeze or boil. And it has a shopping mall-like surface temperature of near 72 degrees, scientists say.
The planet's confirmation was announced Monday by NASA along with other discoveries by its Kepler telescope, which was launched on a planet-hunting mission in 2009.
That is the first planet confirmed in the habitable zone for Kepler, which already had found Earth-like rockyplanets elsewhere. Twice before astronomers have announced a planet found in that zone, but neither has been as promising.
"This is a phenomenal discovery in the course of human history," Geoff Marcy of University of California, Berkeley, one of the pioneers of planet-hunting outside Earth's solar system, said in an email. "This discovery shows that we Homo sapiens are straining our reach into the universe to find planets that remind us of home. We are almost there."
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
A diagram comparing our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first 'habitable zone' planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. Kepler-22b, the most Earth-like planet ever discovered is circling a star 600 light years away, a key finding in an ongoing quest to learn if life exists beyond Earth, scientists said on Monday. Kepler-22b joins a list of more than 500 planets found to orbit stars beyond our solar system. It is the smallest and the best positioned to have liquid water on its surface - among the ingredients necessary for life on Earth.
Photo Illustration/Ames/JPL-Caltech/NASA/Reuters
Okay all you seniors....Florida is out....This is where they’re shipping you!!
They don’t know what’s there NOW !
All they know is what WAS there in the earth year 1411. Columbus hadn’t even sailed to America yet.
We'll never get there.
Are we there yet? I have to go to the bathroom!
It's also a significant discovery supporting Darwin's theory of evolution.
We’ll get there but it’s going to take a while before the technology is developed.
One small problem. This planet is 620 light years away. It will take generation in space travel and a new generation of spacecraft to achieve star travel.
Only to someone desperate to find such a ‘support’.
No, it’s not. It doesn’t support nor disprove anything regarding evolution.
I don’t know about that. With discovering particles (neutrinos, I think?) “appearing” and “reappearing,” teleportation just may be a reality in a few decades.
Cart before the horse...
Assume that life on earth is an accident,
and therefore it MUST have happened elsewhere as well.
Just curious, though, how exactly, in your mind, does “finding a planet in the habitable zone around a distant star” support the idea that all life on THIS planet has a single common ancestry?
Not to mention whether they'll be interested in meeting us!
Darwin's "Origin" has two chapters covering Geloogy.
Chapter IX "On the Imperfection of the Geological Record."
Chapter X "On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings."
And no--I am not going to go read it. If you want to make a point, make it--don't go pointing to texts I am not familiar with, nor intend to read.
It sounds like a LOVELY place for all the libs to start setting up and working on their ‘utopia’. They won’t drill, allow motorized vehicles of any kind, no incandescent bulbs, and on and on. I personally vow NOT to interfere with my conservative principles. It will be THEIR PLANET to manage as they see fit. They can even allow illegal immigration from other nearby planets, if they so choose.
We conservatives will stay here on the ‘polluted’ Earth with our nasty cars, nuclear plants, oil rigs, industry, farms, jobs, guns, the American Flag, and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Regarding This planet ...
From "Darwin's Ghost" by Steve Jones, page 284.
"About a thousand genes are shared by every organism, however simple or complicated."
Just our luck. This planet is probably full of Amazonian women, or maybe the place where those green skin Orion Slave Girls live, and we'll never even get there in many generations even if we leave now. Oh well, my wife wouldn't let me keep one anyway.
Evolution is a subject covering everything that exists. The Earth ... the entire universe ... everything ... is evolving.
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