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To: RightWhale
Out of the 100 SuperJupiters, they found 1 that has an orbit like the one and only original Jupiter. That 1 is a "possible" for small rocky planets similar to the inner planets. The rest are unlikely. That's 1 in 1000, not 1 in 10. The 30 billion is down to 0.3 billion. If you pick up 300 million grains of sand off a beach, what are the odds of even one jewel-quality diamond being in there? Could happen, but you could starve first.

"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.

33 posted on 07/03/2002 9:50:54 AM PDT by laredo44
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To: laredo44
wait a few years

It's going to be interesting during the next ten years if NASA and ESA get their earth detectors launched. Who knows what might be found. There are some good ideas being converted to hardware, so if there is something out there it seems there is a good chance it will be spotted. We're counting chickens before they hatch at this time.

46 posted on 07/03/2002 9:57:25 AM PDT by RightWhale
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