Posted on 08/05/2004 10:56:29 AM PDT by presidio9
Our solar system may be unique after all, despite the discovery of at least 120 other systems with planets, astronomers said on Wednesday.
All the other solar systems that have been found have big, gassy planets circling too close to their stars to allow them to be anything like Earth or its fellow planets, the British and U.S.-based researchers said.
If that is the case, Earth-like planets will be very rare, the astronomers write in the latest issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
"Maybe these other extrasolar systems ... contain only the giant planets," said Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Livio and colleagues took a close look at what is known about the other planetary systems that have been discovered.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
It's obvious...I mean, what are the odds that ANOTHER Democrat Party could exist somewheres else?
Jupiter has moons almost as big as Earth. It is possible, but not likely, that these close-in giant gas planets around other stars could have a "moon" that has life on it since the temperature itself may be OK.
The universe is just too big for us ever to know, but it is clear that a planet like ours is rare.
Isn't it harder to observe and detect solar systems like ours at interstellar distances precisely because the planets are so small?
It's also possible that current technology can ONLY detect planets that are large, therefore gaseous, therefore not sustaining life.
outstanding...can't top that..can't even come close..
Impossible.
humans think with a little science they can understand and comprehend the entire universe. of course it's not one of a kind. there are how many solar systems in our galaxy alone? how many more galaxies? how many more galaxies we can't even see?
I'll put this up there with sayings like "The Earth is flat", "Man was never meant to fly", "We'll never harness atomic energy", and "We'll never land on the moon". Such statements are foolish at best...
Precisely. They detect these planets by looking at the gravitational 'tug' it places on the star as it orbits. The bigger the planet, the more noticeable the tug.
I can't believe they'd actually write an article like this. According to my eyesite, there are no other people on planet earth farther than 1 mile from me at all times, even less at night!
Either that or our ability to detect gravitational influences of smaller planets like Earth and Mars inside what we believe to be the "living zone" of their stars isn't well enough developed yet....
Detecting the gravitational distortions of a gas giant close to a star is easier than detecting them from a much much smaller planet further away from the star.
Time will tell eventually.
I have been saying that this for years. In a finite universe someone HAS to be the first. We are here. There is no 'real' evidence of life off of Earth. Anything else is speculation, guessing, and/or just lies. I won't believe there is anything else out there until it comes through the StarGate and says 'HI'
Oh man, you have discovered the missing mass in the universe: Teddytrons. They are very very heavy.
Dear Presidio,
This is a great article and thanks for bringing it to my attention. Kee up the good work.
Signed,
Nobody
My lay read of this (I are no astronomer), is that the technique used to look for planets around other suns is by looking for "wobble" in the star.
That approach make it much more likely to find stars with large planets in close, as the larger/closer the planet the more "wobble".
Exactly! We detect extrasolar planets by watching for stars that wobble slightly because of the nearby presence of something massive. Only very large planets can do that. We can't draw any conclusions about extrasolar planets until we have the ability to see smaller planets.
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