Solar system similar to ours discovered: US astronomers

Yahoo! News via Drudge ^ | June 13, 2002 | Yahoo! News staff

[Exit 109]

Friday June 14, 3:19 AM

Solar system similar to ours discovered: US astronomers

US astronomers announced the discovery of a solar system similar to our own, at a press conference at NASA's headquarters here.

Astronomers said they had identified an extra-solar planet orbiting this star at about the same distance Jupiter orbits the sun. They discovered a total of 15 extra-solar planets.

University of California at Berkley astronomy professor Geoffrey Marcy discovered the star, named 55 Cancri, 15 years ago, jointly with his colleague at Washington's Carnegie Institution Paul Butler.

In 1996, Marcy and Butler announced the discovery of a first planet orbiting 55 Cancri "in 14.6 days at a distance only one-tenth that from Earth to the sun."

55 Cancri is located 41 million light-years from the Earth, in the constellation of Cancer. The star, believed to be around five billion years old, is visible to the naked eye, astronomers said.

[Exit 109]

Dang! Shoulda read the fine print.

Guess that means no frog legs for me.

[JoeSchem]

Don't we hear about one of these extra-solar solar systems being discovered every other month or so?

[Types_with_Fist]

Guess that means no frog legs for me.

Nawwww. I'm sure Drudge would gladly give you some...:-)

[weikel]

I would hope when civilization reaches a certain level of development liberals( modern not classical) would have been genetically engineered out of existence. Communism( well unless the race has a hive mind like the borg) is already empirically proven as a failed economic system.

[JoeSchem]

"a first planet orbiting 55 Cancri "in 14.6 days at a distance only one-tenth that from Earth to the sun" That must be Vulcan.

In Star Trek lore, Mr. Spock's home planet of Vulcan orbited Epsilon Eridani. Back about two years ago, astronomers reported discovering a planet orbiting that star, also.

[El Gato]

It doesn't sound all that similar to our solar system. Yes, it's a got a big Jupiter sized planet at about the right distance, but it's also got a really big planet in close to the start too. We've only got a few rocks until you get out to Jupiter. 'Course one of those rocks is a pretty pleasant place.

[thedilg]

From a viewpoint of ETI, all these discoveries are not suitable for life. This particular planet is not anywhere near the "goldilocks zone" i.e. not too hot, not too cold. Geez, this Jupiter size planet is one tenth the distance to their sun as compared to our planet. I am certain that the temperature on this planet would melt lead. With a planet this size the gravity would be incredible. The atmosphere would be enormously heavy and poisonous.

By the way most of the planets that have been discovered so far have highly elliptical orbits. Therefore, long periods of time at extreme cold and shorter periods of time at metal melting temperatures.

Godspeed, The Dilg

[RadioAstronomer]

Only the first ones we have found. Think of the possibilities out there. :-)

[colorado tanker]

"In Star Trek lore, Mr. Spock's home planet of Vulcan orbited Epsilon Eridani. Back about two years ago, astronomers reported discovering a planet orbiting that star, also." Well, if we could just figure out how to simulate a warp drive signature, maybe they'd come visit us!

[Orangedog]

How far is that at warp 9.4?

If you go by the charts made by some of the "official" Star Trek manuals that estimate how fast a given warp-factor is, it would take about 50 to 100 years to travel 41 million light years at 9.4. Now at 41 light years, it would only take about a day or so.

[Orangedog]

I wonder if a species much more advanced than us would want to take issue with our planet and the pollution that we have been beaming out into space for decades...specifically this would be the 20 years of CNN and 50+ years of broadcast television. Let's just hope that they would have a sense of humor and would love to see countless reruns of 'Baywatch.'

[Doc On The Bay]

.......OR, the Scientists will have to find a Planet with a Population in "Imminent Danger" of "Self-Immolation," due to the "ravings" of a "Quasi-Religious Group of 'Self-Appointed Prophets of Doom'" who have Parlayed a Dubious collection of "Junk Science" into a "Political Force," & are attempting to create a "Political Power Base" for their own Personal Profit!!

The "Global warming Schtick" has FAR MORE credibility in "Cut-Throat Politics" than it has in Serious Scientific Discussion!!

BEWARE!!--"Global Warming" MAY WELL BE a "House of Cards!!"

Doc

[RadioAstronomer]

Um not quite. The interstellar scintillation will "strip" off the modulation and leave only the narrowband carrier without any information. This is why most SETI searches look for that narrowband carrier.

[Mo1]

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[GreenLanternCorps]

It's even faster via power ring!

[Orangedog]

That's what I get for trying to be sarcastic on a propeller-head thread :) I fugured I'd be mocked and teased, but graded?! Guess that's what makes FR so blasted interesting!

[RightWhale]

There is a book titled "Rare Earth" written in the popular style by a couple of actual scientists that points out just how unlikely the combination really is that made earth the great place it is. It's a quick and easy read but has a lot of material, a good overview of the situation as it was known a couple of years ago.

[RightWhale]

Why?

A lot of variables and they all have to be just right. We could probably learn how to terraform planets that are close to what we need, but finding another earth among mere billions of galaxies and billions of stars each is an astronomically small probability, one in a quadrillion and that is us.

At the same time, every rocky planet, even those that don't have stars and exist in the near zero temperatures and total darkness between stars probably have some kind of low life forms such as bacteria that need only some heat and some rocks to chew. Most such planets would have some internal heat unless they are really, really old. Even earth has that down in the rock, vast quantities of bacterial life, even more biomass than what is on the surface, bacteria that never saw the light of day.

[RadioAstronomer]

I fugured I'd be mocked and teased, but graded?!

Oh my. If I came across that way, you have my deepest apologies. I was just trying to impart information. I never in my wildest dreams tried to or even though I was being condescending. :-(