Astronomer Stands By Discovery of Alien Planet Gliese 581g Amid Doubts

SPACE.com Senior Writer ^ | Wednesday, October 13, 2010 | Mike Wall

[SunkenCiv]

Despite the doubts raised recently over the existence of the potentially habitable alien world Gliese 581g, the planet's co-discoverer is standing behind his find.

Steven Vogt, leader of the team that detected Gliese 581g, said he respects the work of the researchers who questioned the planet's existence yesterday (Oct. 12). He said he cannot comment on the scientists' results, since he hasn't seen their data.

But he has confidence in his own team's conclusions... Vogt added that he looks forward to reading the other team's results when they're published in a peer-reviewed journal. He's not necessarily expecting Gliese 581g to be yanked off the list of extrasolar planets, though.

"In 15 years of exoplanet hunting, with over hundreds of planets detected by our team, we have yet to publish a single false claim, retraction or erratum," Vogt said. "We are doing our level best to keep it that way."

[SunkenCiv]

'Earth-like' planet may not exist

Google

[SunkenCiv]

In before the "another theory by some scientist proved wrong" starts.

· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·

Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

[SunkenCiv]

Width restricted to 400.

[I think this artist's conception comes from NASA]

[plain talk]

I think given the vast quantities of galaxies and stars that many earth-like planets surely exist. To me the question is not whether they exist but rather the liklihood that they exist relatively ‘nearby’ and close enough to even matter to us

[UCANSEE2]

Until we can greatly exceed the speed of light (if even possible), there are no ‘possible’ Earth like planets even close enough.

[UCANSEE2]

Here’s the funny part. Even if we discover an ‘Earth like’ planet ‘relatively’ near, it may already be gone.

[Fraxinus]

My understanding is that our own equipment could only discern our own signals out to about 4 light years. I suspect all that could be discerned from a farther distance would be an odd intermittent radio hash.

Thus any signal from life on other planets would require equipment at least a magnitude stronger (better?) than ours.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yep, and all this search for earth-like planets is about as useful as trying to determine the number angels that can dance on the head of a pin. Interesting but worthless information.

[plain talk]

Until we can greatly exceed the speed of light (if even possible), there are no ‘possible’ Earth like planets even close enough.

Not necessarily. If there are Earth-like planets within say 10 light years and we were able to achieve 1/10 the speed of light then we could reach them in 100 years. But it does make my earlier point that only those relatively close to Earth - a tiny portion of the universe - are of any serious interest in a discussion like this. God apparently spread us apart on purpose and for good reason.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks plain talk.

[SunkenCiv]

The distance limit in 1960 was in the area of 4 ly. Twenty years later or so it had risen to better than 10 ly (which is obviously more than 2.5 times as much space that could be listened to), and sensitivity has risen a lot since then. The next big leap *may* be radiotelescopy from the “dark side” of the Moon.

[GonzoGOP]

Actually a Ram-augmented interstellar rocket could make it up to speeds of almost .3 C. At that rate Gliese 581g would be well within the rage of a two or three generation starship. Since a very large starship is little different than a space colony people of the future, who will likely have grown up in space colonies, would not consider this such a big deal.

We are talking dim distant future here. But hey Columbus opened the trade route to America in 1492. And the Jamestown colony wasn't founded until 1607. So a 115 year gap between discovery of a destination and the first tentative attempts at colonization isn't unprecedented. But we won't be any reason for going to other stars until we have completed colonization of this solar system. And that will take someplace between thousands of years or if we stay at the current pace hundreds of thousands of years. Like I said dim distant future.

[plain talk]

But we won't be any reason for going to other stars until we have completed colonization of this solar system

You raise a good point. We are talking dim distant future as you say anyway and probably long before we attempt to reach a star we would probably inhabit Mars which would be a massive job in itself.

Also - even if our best remote tests indicate a planet circling a star is a perfect clone we could find that it might require a self-contained atmospheric dome anyway to survive anyway because of deadly compounds in the atmosphere, deadly radiation or who knows what. And those things might not be fully understood until a crew reached that planet. This means they would have to plan for worst case scenario and come equipped to not fully rely on the atmosphere. An expedition to a star likely comes long after man has destroyed Mars and every other possible place of habitation in this solar system or has to flee other groups of man just to survive.

[bigheadfred]

Here’s the funny part. Even if we discover an ‘Earth like’ planet ‘relatively’ near, it may already be gone.

I used to live on an "Earth like" planet...

[UCANSEE2]

God apparently spread us apart on purpose and for good reason.

If they are anything like us, then God spread us that far to keep us from wiping out each other's civilization.

[mikrofon]

That speed-of-light limitation was a pretty good idea, too....