Posted on 11/30/2005 7:21:39 PM PST by KevinDavis
Astronomers have discovered a planet about as massive as Neptune orbiting one of the most common types of stars in the universe.
The star is a red dwarf, a class of star about 50 times fainter than the Sun. Among the 100 stars closest to us, 80 are red dwarfs. But astronomers had so far found only two planets in searches of about 200 red dwarfs, while well more than a hundred planets have been found around other types of stars.
"Our finding possibly means that planets are rather frequent around the smallest stars," says Xavier Delfosse, from the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble in France and co-author of the paper relating the work. "It certainly tells us that red dwarfs are ideal targets for the search for exoplanets."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
"Time will tell, wanna bet?"
Nope. Not on this claim. This is by a European group. I'll wait for our scientists.
I agree that the science is in its infancy and that there will be many false and mistaken claims early on.
However, the end result will that we will find a lot of earth like planets.
Are they sure it doesn't hint at Michael Moore?
Or they find us.
I think we could find many Europas out there that have an insulative ice covering with an ocean underneath. We'll have no way of knowing whether or not life exists on these worlds without going there and drilling through the icy shell. This won't be happening anytime soon unless we discover warp drive in the next five years.
Thank God they didn't say that they have discovered a planet as massive as Uranus.
Both nothing is unique and everything is - at the same time, but in the different aspects. To illustrate - in your own estimation you are unique, but in the estimation of your employer [if you have one] or of the Census Bureau - you are most emphatically not unique, but interchangeable with any other object [employee or inhabitant] of the same class.
That all depends on how like Earth a planet must be to be "earthlike".
As with the Neptune-like planet, about the right mass and composition in a stable orbit is enough.
In this context, Venus and Mars are "earthlike".
I guess the metric to measure 'Earth-like" would be: can it sustain life as we know it, with the same gravity and atmosphere.
Care to back this up with hard data?
And invade us. And conquer us. And enslave or destroy us. (Happy thoughts for the day!)
So far, no two snowflakes have been found that are exactly alike. Alike in some particulars, but not all. Same for moons, planets, stars. Similar enough to inhabit as is: perhaps there are some inside the Milky Way; probably not. Similar enough to be called earthlike: probably; similar enough that survival would be likely: probably not. Even with an oxygen atmosphere and liquid water oceans, the vegetation might well be toxic, the animals and bacteria deadly.
Realistically, what you say is true.
But theoretically, the P(that there exists another planet similar to Earth) does NOT equal zero.
There are a hundred billion stars in the galaxy. There are a hundred billion galaxies in the Hubble volume. Big number? Odds are against even this one planet.
No, but maybe that was the only place that would outsource his ego...
However, the star is only 1.3% as luminous as the sun. Therefore, it's probably not nearly as hot as you'd think...may well be similar to Earth in temperature.
Alpha Cen A is slightly larger and brighter than the sun, and Alpha Cen B somewhat dimmer but both are well within the range that most astronomers think would easily support Earth-like planets at the right distance.
FYI it's a red dwarf, not a red giant.
Not similar to earth temps. Red dwarfs are generally thought to have surface temps of about 4,000 degrees or less. Cool as far as star temps go. I think the article states it is believed that this specific planet has surface temps of about 300 degrees.
True. I do know that if the sun were suddenly replaced with a red dwarf that Earth would freeze into an iceball that never rose above freezing.
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