"In space, no one can hear the sound of your b!tching."
Posted on 07/03/2002 9:03:47 AM PDT by RightWhale
Scientists estimate 30 billion Earths
By Dr David Whitehouse , BBC News Online science editor
Astronomers say there could be billions of Earths in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Their assessment comes after the discovery of the 100th exoplanet - a planet that circles a star other than our own.
The latest find is a gas giant, just like all the other exoplanets so far detected, and orbits a Sun-like star 293 light-years away.
Scientists say they are now in a position to try to estimate how many planets may exist in the galaxy and speculate on just how many could be like the Earth. The answer in both cases is billions.
Virtually all the stars out to about 100 light-years distant have been surveyed. Of these 1,000 or so stars, about 10% have been found to possess planetary systems.
So, with about 300 billion stars in our galaxy, there could be about 30 billion planetary systems in the Milky Way alone; and a great many of these systems are very likely to include Earth-like worlds , say researchers.
Better grasp
The 100th new planet circles the star HD 2039. It was found by astronomers using the Anglo-Australian Telescope as part of the Carnegie Institution Planet Search Program.
The Jupiter-sized world circles its star every 1,210 days at a distance of about 320 million kilometres (200 million miles).
Astronomer Dr Jean Schneider, who compiles the Extrasolar Planets Catalogue, told BBC News Online: "The 100th planet is symbolic and important.
"The first discoveries concentrated on short orbital periods because of the limited timebase of observations. Now, we are learning more about the statistics of long orbital periods and know to what extent our own Jupiter is exceptional or not."
New telescopes
With the new world, astronomers say that they have just about finished surveying all the Sun-like stars out to a distance of 100 light-years from Earth.
Current planet detection technology - based on the "wobble" induced in the parent star by the gravitational pull of the orbiting planet - can only detect worlds about the mass of Saturn or larger. Earth-sized worlds are too small to be seen.
But even in this "biased" survey of giants, the smaller worlds predominate - which makes astronomers think that Earth-like worlds do exist. They may even be as common as Jupiter-sized exoplanets.
And if stellar statistics gathered in our local region of space are applied to our galaxy of 300 billion stars, then there may be 30 billion Jupiter-like worlds and perhaps as many Earth-like worlds as well.
Astronomers will have to wait for a new generation of space-based telescopes incorporating advanced detectors before they can detect Earth-sized worlds orbiting other stars.
"In space, no one can hear the sound of your b!tching."
So how can they possibly make the claim of earth-like planets? EVERY other planet found has been a gas giant. I'll start to believe this nonsense when they actually do find a planet remotely similar to ours.
Good post, and your comments are excellent.
I am as much a romantic as anybody else, but I also understand that we humans have our own singular set of realities. There is virtually zero possibility that there are "life forms" on other planets which share any piece of human or earthly reality. And if there were such "life forms", the possibility that they would have human senses resembling 'sight', 'touch', 'hearing', 'smell', or 'taste' are even more remote. Factor in other human concepts such as 'time', 'space', and 'thought' and it is clear that there is no extra-terrestrial life with which humans could hope to communicate. (Of course, "communication" itself is merely another human concept, yawn.)
I believe that there are 'beings' of some kind on other planets out there somewhere.... but nothing humans could ever hope sense in any way or, (laugh) "understand".
The first criteria is a size and gravity to hold and maintain a Nitrogen-Oxygen atmosphere while allowing other gasses to be minor components. Next is to have an orbit within the Free Water (H20) Zone (too close=too hot like Venus, too far=too cold).
Next is the presence of Earth's Moon, which, resulted from a Mars-sized impact 3.5 billion years ago to form Luna which has stabelized Earth's rotational axis, generated moderate tides and formed a minor shield against further impact events.
Next comes the presence of Jupiter and the other Gas Giants which sweep much of the potential catastrophic cosmic impactors before they can hit the Earth.
There were multiple other criteria in this study but these are the highlights as I remember them. The conclusion of the study was that even if life could form on every Earth-style planet, the odds of all these criteria lining up would reduce the possibility of another Earth to a very small number.
Well call me when you actually have a PHOTO! Sheesh..everyone wants to be Carl Sagan these days..
You beat me by a few seconds. Great minds . . .
"The first discoveries concentrated on short orbital periods because of the limited timebase of observations. Now, we are learning more about the statistics of long orbital periods and know to what extent our own Jupiter is exceptional or not."
Current planet detection technology - based on the "wobble" induced in the parent star by the gravitational pull of the orbiting planet - can only detect worlds about the mass of Saturn or larger. Earth-sized worlds are too small to be seen.
Sounds like our detection capabilities are pretty primative at this time. It might be wise to wait a few years to see what else they find before we start making and debating consclusions.
Not if it's "7 3/8". [Appologies to Bullwinkle.]
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