Posted on 04/03/2013 6:26:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Less than two decades ago, there were exactly zero known planets orbiting sunlike stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers back then were engaged in a powerful struggle to seek out exoplanets, and they succeeded, so that today there are 861 confirmed exoplanets, according to exoplanet.eu on March 25, 2013... astronomers at The University of Auckland in New Zealand announced their new method for finding exoplanets. They say they anticipate 100 billion planets similar to our Earth, orbiting stars in the Milky Way...
Lead author of the New Zealand planet search -- Dr. Phil Yock from the University of Auckland’s Department of Physics -- said his team’s strategy is to use a gravitational microlensing technique. Yock said his team will use a combination of data from microlensing and NASA’s Kepler space telescope.
The Kepler space telescope, by the way, has single-handedly found 105 exoplanets and an astounding 2,740 planet candidates orbiting 2,036 stars (as of January 7, 2013)...
Kepler finds Earth-sized planets that are quite close to parent stars, and it estimates that there are 17 billion such planets in the Milky Way. These planets are generally hotter than Earth, although some could be of a similar temperature (and therefore habitable) if they’re orbiting a cool star called a red dwarf...
Microlensing, used by the New Zealand astronomers, is a third technique for finding planets orbiting distant suns. It measures the deflection of light from a distant star that passes through a planetary system en route to Earth. This effect was predicted by Einstein in 1936 and has been used successfully not only to find exoplanets but also to study distant objects such as quasars...
(Excerpt) Read more at earthsky.org ...
It should be noted that hot a single one of the exoplanets discovered is even close to being habitable.
It should be noted that not a single one of the exoplanets discovered is even close to being habitable.
Mr. Sagan didn’t believe in God back then.
I’ll guarantee you, he does NOW!
Oh, No!!~!
You know what I really miss. I miss those Sat. night creationist vs. evolutionist threads. Haven’t seen any lately. I think they might have killed each other off. You know, Mutually Assured Destruction. MAD for short. Yep, I’d check in every now and then, throw out a comment or 2. And watch the fireworks. Great with a glass of good Scotch.
(Sigh..) I miss the good ‘ole days....
comment s/b comet (do not ever rely on spell check)
For now...
They said that about Florida once.
We are alone...
Why do we keep looking? If liberals want a colder planet, just send them all to Pluto one way.
I suppose it is possible that there may be some form of simple life on a few of those planets, but my bet is, none of them harbor any kind of advanced, intelligent life (i.e. life capable of even simple, basic technology).
The majority of planets they have found have orbits of less than 48 hours and are so close to their suns that they have estimated surface temps of 800 deg or more.
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