2013 just might be the year scientists find first “alien Earth”

MSNBC ^ | 12/27/2012 6:52:14 PM ET | Mike Wall

[Olog-hai]

The first truly Earthlike alien planet is likely to be spotted next year, an epic discovery that would cause humanity to reassess its place in the universe.

While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years that share one or two key traits with our own world—such as size or inferred surface temperature—they have yet to bag a bona fide “alien Earth.” But that should change in 2013, scientists say.

“I’m very positive that the first Earth twin will be discovered next year,” said Abel Mendez, who runs the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. …

[Oatka]

If you see the politicians pushing for a GAFTA treaty (Galactic American Free Trade Agreement) you will know that not only did they find another earth, they found that those residents work cheaper than the Chinese.

[dfwgator]

2013 just might be the year scientists find first “alien Earth”

And then again, it might not.

[Olog-hai]

Sure ain’t gonna be the Ferengi.

[staytrue]

I’ll bet that they will not find it. That is because our Earth is dependent on a very rare colision that made the moon and made the earth with a very thin crust and a larger than normal Iron core.

Basically two large objects collided so that the earth got most of the cores and the moon got most of the crust.

This just is a very rare event.

The moon stablized our orbit and the thin crust allows for carbon recycling and plate techtonics and the big core allows for a beefy magnetic field.

We are just not going to stumble on another earth.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Olog-hai! The capabilities for detection have increased by at least a factor of ten since the first confirmed extrasolar planet detection more than ten years ago. But up until recently the standard spam was, "so what / it's unconstitutional / we can't go there / none of these are anywhere *near* Earth-sized / "Rare Earth" *proves* there isn't any life anywhere but Earth!" -- but that's not to say I don't I love seeing the same remarks over and over.

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[Grimmy]

The only way I see finding a new *Earth* planet as unconstitutional is if there’s a drive to export this current unconstitutional abortion of a government to that new planet.

[Brett66]

An archipelago planet, I need to get a warp-capable ship to explore it.

It will be fascinating when they can image these planets, Earth may be somewhat unique with it’s large oceans, maybe a lot of habitable planets have numerous seas instead.

[cripplecreek]

“Habitable” is a subjective term anyway. We’re ideally suited to this planet but we’re also the most adaptable species to ever live on this planet and we have the added ability to control our immediate environment to a certain extent. After all, we have people living in a completely uninhabitable environment on the space station. The arctic regions of our own planet are uninhabitable without a certain degree of technology and adaptability. With a thicker oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere mars would be pretty close to habitable without protective pressurized suits.

Large global oceans are good for transporting heat around a planet but I’m not sure they’re necessary as long as there’s enough multiple seas. The great lakes regulate temperatures in the region without currents running from tropical to arctic regions.

Considering the fact that our galaxy consists of hundreds of billions of stars and it appears that the majority of them we’ve looked at have planets, I’d say that the possibilities are pretty much endless. No planet would be exactly identical but some are probably quite similar and within our ability to adapt to.