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Uncommon Earth - Simulation shows the solar system could only form under rare conditions
Science News ^ | August 7th, 2008 | Ashley Yeager

Posted on 08/07/2008 9:57:23 PM PDT by neverdem

Goldilocks isn’t the only one who demanded everything to be “just right.” The Earth and its fellow seven planets also needed perfect conditions to form as observed, and those right conditions occur rarely, a new computer simulation shows.

The new simulation, described in the Aug. 8 Science, is the first to trace from beginning to end how planetary systems form from an initial gas disk encircling a baby star.

“The really striking result of the new model is how chaotic and even violent the average story of a planet’s birth is,” says Edward Thommes, an astrophysicist now at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

The process is typically a big mess. “Planets get into each others' ‘personal space,’ gravitationally scattering each other. They compete with each other for gas from the disk that gives birth to them and lots of planets are lost along the way,” he says. “It's almost like reality TV.”

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: astronomy; astrophysics; catastrophism; cosmology; crevo; donaldbrownlee; peterward; rareearth; rareearthnonsense; simulation; xplanets
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To: neverdem
Goldilocks isn’t the only one who demanded everything to be "just right."

I vote for this entry for the stupidest beginning line ever.

41 posted on 08/08/2008 5:17:39 AM PDT by Egon (The difference between Theory and Practice: In Theory, there is no difference.)
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To: AnalogReigns

Isn’t it an amazing coincidence that every lottery winner held the ticket with numbers that matched the winning ones?

Not conclusive evidence that it’s miraculous, but wow.

And what are the chances that a single team of nearly evenly matched ones can win EVERY game out of a long single-eliminatino tournament bracket? Does the Champion look back and say, “It seems like a miracle that we won.” How can he, when any of the teams could have been that one?

Maybe, just maybe, you can’t look back from the final result to claim the beginning was miraculous, since we wouldn’t be here unless things were right.


42 posted on 08/08/2008 5:44:28 AM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: neverdem

“The Earth and its fellow seven planets ...”

Will I’m a little confused, how many planets are there in the Solar System?


43 posted on 08/08/2008 6:00:12 AM PDT by ops33 (Senior Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired))
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To: neverdem
...The simulation, based on data from the 307 exoplanets discovered to date, finds…

Given the vastness and great age of the Universe, a sampling of 307 exoplanets that we’ve observed so far that are currently within our puny range of observation, doesn’t really seem all that conclusive in my opinion.

Sort of like if I went fishing in a few small ponds within a day’s drive from my house, only catching a fish in one and not in any of the others, and then declaring that ponds with fish are extremely rare.
44 posted on 08/08/2008 6:00:37 AM PDT by Caramelgal (Just a lump of organized protoplasm - braying at the stars :),)
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To: Caramelgal
Given the vastness and great age of the Universe, a sampling of 307 exoplanets that we’ve observed so far that are currently within our puny range of observation, doesn’t really seem all that conclusive in my opinion.

For statistical analysis, 307 is a pretty good sized population.
45 posted on 08/08/2008 6:01:35 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: ModelBreaker

People make their choices. For a Creator, against a Creator.

Then they look at the evidence and interpret it to their already preconceived viewpoint.

For the atheist, their reasoning is often that they understand the implications of a Creator, and reject it for narcissistic reasons - there’s something in their life they’d have to give up, usually Pride related.

Don’t spend too much time trying to convince the hardened heart. There are too many out there looking for the real truth that are actually open to hearing it.


46 posted on 08/08/2008 6:05:44 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: BuckeyeForever
If a “Creator” did some “tuning” to create an Earth that is so “unique,” why did that “Creator” have to create a universe that is so unfathomably large, and then have to wait 16 billion years before that “unique” Earth spawned human life? I hate to cast aspersions on your deity, but your god is one slow and inefficient creator.

Well, He's God and I'm not. I don't pretend to understand His mind or what the concept of 16 billion years means to Him. He made time. Do you see how meaningless it is to judge the maker of time by our ideas about how He should have accomplished things or how we could have done a better or more efficient job of creation. The Soviet Union was a very small scale attempt at "creation."

47 posted on 08/08/2008 6:07:39 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: Egon
I vote for this entry for the stupidest beginning line ever.

I vote this as being the stupidest quote ever from a scientist.

“It's almost like reality TV.”

Randy - “Hey dawg. Your solar system was very cool but it was kinda pitchy at times.”

Simon – “Your solar system was just horrendous. Absolutely awful. I think you will be consumed by a super nova this week”.

Paula – “I, um so like, um your sollerr sizdem iz, like so ur so pretty, um, zerlipelcomapatz.”
48 posted on 08/08/2008 6:11:17 AM PDT by Caramelgal (Just a lump of organized protoplasm - braying at the stars :),)
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To: ModelBreaker

Weak analogy, due to our comparatively limited understanding, but here goes:

Imagine a ruler laying on a table in front of you. You can move to the left, right, above, below it, pick it up, move it, turn it around, and most of all, see the whole thing at once. You definitely are not constrained to living on that ruler. You could even smash it and get a different ruler if you wanted, or have several rulers on your desk.

That ruler is represents all dimensions of the universe, including time, forever, as viewed by God.


49 posted on 08/08/2008 6:11:38 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: exhaustguy

Have you read “Privileged Planet”?


50 posted on 08/08/2008 6:12:12 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: agere_contra

The earth was PLACED where it is so that we could discovery Creation (and glorify God in our discovery).

The atmosphere is made up of life sustaining chemicals that are transparent for discovery purposes.

The moon is exactly the right size and distance to sustain life, and for discovery purposes (perfect eclipses).

The gas giants are located in the right place to shield our earth from bombardment.

The sun is the right type of sun, a singular sun, and we are at the right distance from it for life. The earth rotates so that we may study the sun and discover the rest of the universe at night.

Our sun in located in the right place in the galaxy so that life can exist and rocky planets can form. It’s located between spiral arms so that we can see the rest of the universe unobstructed.

Our galaxy is the right type of galaxy (spiral) for discovery and life.

An accident, all of it.


51 posted on 08/08/2008 6:18:46 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: BooksForTheRight.com

Literally thank God that the Bible is not a science book - they’ve always been wrong and had to be changed.


52 posted on 08/08/2008 6:19:38 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: neverdem

You’re welcome:) Thanks for starting the thread. bttt


53 posted on 08/08/2008 6:33:44 AM PDT by Matchett-PI (Driving a Phase-2 Operation Chaos Hybrid that burns both gas AND rubber!)
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To: broncobilly

“You surrender too easily.”

You calling me a Frenchie, boy?

: ) (just kidding!)


I didn’t get as far into the details as you did.
Thank you for extending what I started.

I agree with everything you said, except, one can’t be sure that Earth we know now is the Earth that existed in the beginning. There are signs that there was a real planet (Earth isn’t quite big enough to qualify as a planet. Yet we had the gall to reclassify Pluto) in our solar system, which got hit by another proto-planet.

Allegedly, the moon is a giant chunk of debris from such collision.

Mars may be another piece. Regardless, it seems to have a giant gash across the surface, as if two planetary bodies had a sideswipe collision.

So, we may have been given day and night (the rotation of the Earth) before God gave us light

Coalescence of the particulates in the air that blocked the sunlight to a great extent, then allowed the light, which became regulated and toned down a bit, after evaporation started occurring on a world-wide basis. (the waters of the deep poured forth skyward)


54 posted on 08/08/2008 7:12:18 AM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: broncobilly

“but the first light came before night and day, just as you read in Genesis. “

And that was the perception, from the viewpoint of those on Earth.

The Sun may have been a fuzzy spot in a sky that didn’t significantly alter the amount of light reaching the surface.

Only after many of the particles and gases precipitated, and left water vapor as the predominant greenhouse gas, would there have been an actual day and night.


55 posted on 08/08/2008 7:25:23 AM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: Seruzawa

“It’s interesting stuff but in the end it’s conjecture.”

It’s conjecture, but in the end, it’s what makes the world go round.

: )


56 posted on 08/08/2008 7:29:10 AM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: agere_contra

“Hope this is helpful/useful. “

It was. As long as helpful/useful means the same as ‘head exploded while reading’.

: )


57 posted on 08/08/2008 7:33:06 AM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: ModelBreaker

Fascinating. Thanks for your post.


58 posted on 08/08/2008 7:33:30 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic ("And how can this be? For I am the Kwisatz Haderach! " - Barack Obama)
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To: LiteKeeper
Creationists have been talking about this for years - it is called the Anthropic Principle. And the concept was developed initially by non-creationists.

Assuming your creationists have no problem with billions of years.

I'm not a creationist, but I accept the probable rarity of earthlike planets. I don't draw any conclusions from this. Once something has happened, the probability is one.

59 posted on 08/08/2008 7:39:30 AM PDT by js1138
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To: MrB

“There are too many out there looking for the real truth that are actually open to hearing it.”

I don’t think anyone knows the real truth.


60 posted on 08/08/2008 7:42:48 AM PDT by UCANSEE2
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