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Scientists Spot Nearby 'Super-Earth'
CNN ^ | 12/16/2009 | CNN

Posted on 12/17/2009 1:40:25 AM PST by Dallas59



(CNN) -- Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth.

While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth, the discovery is being heralded as a major breakthrough in humanity's search for life on other planets.

"The big excitement is that we have found a watery world orbiting a very nearby and very small star," said David Charbonneau, a Harvard professor of astronomy and lead author of an article on the discovery, which appeared this week in the journal Nature.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: astrometry; astronomy; exoplanets; extrasolar; extrasolarplanets; planet; planetaryscience; science; xplanets
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1 posted on 12/17/2009 1:40:25 AM PST by Dallas59
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To: Dallas59

Must be a Class M Planet. The Global Warming kooks will probably try to say CO2 from Earth is killing the aliens.


2 posted on 12/17/2009 1:50:53 AM PST by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: screaminsunshine

Lol...I uploaded the wrong picture..Fake but accurate.


3 posted on 12/17/2009 2:03:18 AM PST by Dallas59 (No To O -Time is going by really really really really slow.)
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To: screaminsunshine

Sounds like Ferenginar. Let’s do business!


4 posted on 12/17/2009 2:05:26 AM PST by BigCinBigD (")
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To: Dallas59

Yippeee! We’re saved from ourselves! Now, there is no limit to where we can send those Liberals. I say we start right doing that immediately!


5 posted on 12/17/2009 2:13:50 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP
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To: Dallas59

.....maybe they knew about us,before we found out about .....them

6 posted on 12/17/2009 2:17:22 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: BigCinBigD

Nope its Venus....Where did they find this thing ? What star? How far away is it ? This CNN report sucks.
http://www,theusmat.com/


7 posted on 12/17/2009 2:18:31 AM PST by mosesdapoet ( What did Obama's UK's first trip and his curious entourage of 500 cost US ?)
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To: Dallas59

A light year is 9 Trillion Miles...and if this thing is 40 light years away.....its NOT NEAR BY IN LAYMAN’S Terms.


8 posted on 12/17/2009 2:19:20 AM PST by Halgr (Once a Marine, always a Marine - Semper Fi)
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To: Halgr

“A light year is 9 Trillion Miles...and if this thing is 40 light years away.....its NOT NEAR BY IN LAYMAN’S Terms.”

You can get there by the subway, but you have to transfer like a billion times.


9 posted on 12/17/2009 2:22:20 AM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: Dallas59

they never quit.


10 posted on 12/17/2009 2:30:10 AM PST by applpie
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To: Dallas59
While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life...

A consensus here on earth is forming that this planet once did support life, but it developed SUVs and harnessed coal and oil for power. The civilization there not only heated their atmosphere, but the added CO2 added to their atmosphere, killing them off.

11 posted on 12/17/2009 2:30:35 AM PST by C210N (A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything you have)
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

Let’s send all the lefties there so they can cool the place down.


12 posted on 12/17/2009 2:32:07 AM PST by Right Wing Assault (The Obama magic is fading.)
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To: mosesdapoet

“What star? How far away is it ? This CNN report sucks.”

You beat me to it. The story is worthless without a distance in light years.


13 posted on 12/17/2009 2:42:38 AM PST by AlexW (Now in the Philippines . Happy not to be back in the USA for now.)
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To: MotleyGirl70; Cagey; Mr. Brightside; earlJam; Rb ver. 2.0; lesser_satan; Taffini; jdm; countess; ...

**Scientists Spot Nearby ‘Super-Earth’**

What’s it like?

JERRY: Yeah. Like Bizarro Superman. Superman’s exact opposite, who lives in the backwards bizarro world. Up is Down. Down is Up. He says “Hello” when he leaves, “Good bye” when he arrives.


14 posted on 12/17/2009 2:47:50 AM PST by Gamecock
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To: BigCinBigD

It is Planet Utopio. Obamas home. Everything is free there...but there isn’t any.


15 posted on 12/17/2009 2:49:33 AM PST by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: screaminsunshine

And all inhabitants are democrats. they live in the muck and have closed eyes.


16 posted on 12/17/2009 2:55:55 AM PST by BigCinBigD (")
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To: Halgr

“A light year is 9 Trillion Miles...and if this thing is 40 light years away.....its NOT NEAR BY IN LAYMAN’S Terms.”

I remember back in the late 50s, there was a great interest in turning radio telescopes to one star that was 11 light years away.

The theory was that high power VHF TV signals that had originated about 22 years earlier could have reached some planet that might be orbiting this star, and it was now time to look for some return signal.
The SETI program followed, using the huge radio telescope in Puerto Rico.

I gather that the program is all but dead, with only some volunteers listening for signals from space.


17 posted on 12/17/2009 2:56:03 AM PST by AlexW (Now in the Philippines . Happy not to be back in the USA for now.)
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To: Halgr

A light year is just under six trillion miles (5.878e12). You forgot the km to mi conversion (*0.621).


18 posted on 12/17/2009 3:13:05 AM PST by SpaceBar
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To: Dallas59

Isn’t the Journal “Nature” one of the ones being used by Climategate “scientists” to keep out Global Warming deniers from getting “peer reviewed” articles published?

Maybe I’m thinking of something else....just for some reason have a negative reaction to seeing this is in that publication.


19 posted on 12/17/2009 3:20:21 AM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt (Ronald Reagan: If we ever forget that we're one nation under God,then we'll be a nation gone under.")
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To: Gamecock

ELAINE: Wouldn’t he say “Bad bye?”

JERRY: What?


20 posted on 12/17/2009 3:21:00 AM PST by Future Snake Eater ("Get out of the boat and walk on the water with us!”--Sen. Joe Biden)
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