Scientist Find Most Earth-like Planet

It's a nice article... however, a few things to point out from it:

1. results not published yet - i don't think they've even been peer reviewed.
2. It's all theory and conjecture... they don't know what the planet's made of (rock? Ice?), much less what sort of atmosphere it has.

Basically, the discovery says "hey, we found a planet that's about the same size as Earth!"

 

It's kinda interesting how extra-solar planets are identified and characterized; an application of the Doppler effect. One or more narrow emission lines in the star's spectrogram changes very slightly in frequency/wavelength as the planet 'moves' the star closer and further away. The periodicity of this frequency shift gives the orbital dynamics of the planet (in this case 13 days). That together with the magnitude of the shift gives the planet's mass. This can be more accurate with a pretty good idea of the star's mass, which is the case for closer stars. This is among the closest. But to be fair the uncertainties in each of these determinations are additive (if not multiplicative!) in describing the planet.

From all the above, and the radiation flux of the particular star (also with uncertainty), the temperature of the planet's surface (ignoring any possible atmosphere) can be estimated. If I recall correctly from another version of this story, all these uncertainties result in +/- 60 oC for the planet. But in this case, that range includes the 'liquid water' range, so there you go.

This system also has two other smaller, further planets, which means the star's spectrogram through time must be enormously complicated. But importantly lacking there is a giant outer planet. What I read from the extrasolar people is that a giant outer planet is very important for long-term stability, so I would not be to quick to suppose that the planet has 'biologicals'. Those take a while to spool up (at least according to evolutionary theory).

Another point against is that the planet is apparently tidally locked, always with one side facing the star. Unsure if climate modellers have looked at such a system, but will guess that it would not be pretty.

Best use of discoveries like this (IMHO) is to get the construction and launch of the 'planet finder' telescope back on track. You can image the darn things with that. At least the closer ones.

 

This is obviously impossible. There is no mention of any other earth-like planet in the bible.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tochatihu @ Apr 25 2007, 04:46 PM) [snapback]429722[/snapback]</div>

I always thought the 'wobble' method was only suitable for finding extremely large planets that can cause a star to move a little. Maybe they were lucky with this one. For smaller planets, the Kepler telescope will try to find them by looking for the change in light caused by the planet moving between the telescope and its 'sun'.



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ Apr 25 2007, 04:51 PM) [snapback]429726[/snapback]</div>

The bible does not say anywhere that everything is in the bible. It would be no fun if it gave everything away.

 

"Most Earth-like planet" should actually have been "Most Earth-like planet discovered so far." And even that claim will probably be disputed. Astronomers are finding lots of planets these days, and will continue discovering lots more. The reason it's not big news is that the only thing special about it is that its discoverers think it is a little more like Earth than the others discovered so far.

The issue is that the smaller a planet is, the harder it is to detect. So most of the ones discovered until now are much bigger. But as methods improve, and astronomers put more time into the effort, more of the smaller ones are being found. They could very well find another that's even more Earth-like by the time this one gets peer-reviewed and published.

And in any case, methods do not yet exist for determining very much reliable about exoplanets, so there's a lot of conjecture regarding their properties.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Apr 25 2007, 08:14 AM) [snapback]429753[/snapback]</div>

Keep in mind that they are only finding planets that take less than a month (usually a lot fewer days than an earth month) to go around that other star. Think how long it would take to detect our earth which takes one of our earth years to detect. How many times does a planet have to go around its star before they can detect it? That's assuming another planet isn't getting in the way too. They may have to accumulate years of data to find our earth if they were on another planet around another star and just happening to be catching data about our solor system.

I love this kind of stuff.

As for the Bible I realize the above post was humor and I'm not affended. I look at it this way. WHY would God only create animals (that includes us) on only one planet? How Boring! If you are going to create a scientific experiment (which I think "he?" did), you need to replicate your data quite a few times to make sure of the results.

Or another way to put it. What are the odds that there isn't life on another planet around another star that wouldn't be recognizable by us? Even if it were a billion, billion, trillion to one chance it is still extremely likely to have happened because I don't think we could even fathom the number of stars that are out there. And to think one doesn't have animals similar to us? I certainly wouldn't be against it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Apr 25 2007, 11:14 AM) [snapback]429753[/snapback]</div>

I think it's more important to take care of the planet we live on now.

 

The problem with extra-solar worlds like this one is we can't really be sure whats going on there. On top of that, we don't have the means to get there. Even if, 100 years down the road, someone figures out how to get there, getting back if the planet isn't what we thought could be troublesome.

Instead, we have a perfectly good planet right next door we could start terraforming in the conceivable future. The best part is, the hardest part of terraforming it we're already experts on - pollution! We basically just need to pack up a couple of cities worth of people, send them over there and have them start polluting the hell out of the place... That would create green house gases, which in turn would warm up the planet, helping to melt the polar ice caps and releasing the atmospheric gases trapped within... After that, it's just a matter of planting some bushes and waiting... Obviously very simplified version, but estimates put terraforming to a breathable atmosphere could take as little as 200 years...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ Apr 25 2007, 10:51 AM) [snapback]429726[/snapback]</div>

Gods still working on it - obviously. You really think he created the world in 7 days?? I think it took "him" much longer than that but humans could not and still cannot wrap thier "brains" around that.

HOWEVER....

it looks like a safe place for the dhemocrats to "redeploy" our troops so they can keep supporting them and keep them safe until they find a cause worth fighting for - perhaps when another several thousand Americans get whacked by the enemies they are aiding and abetting. i am pretty sure their supporters in al qaeda and even obl himself would like them that far away so they stop killing their comrades in arms.

 

Berman, can't you go one day without trying to take a thread completely off-topic taking about Iraq?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Apr 25 2007, 08:39 AM) [snapback]429786[/snapback]</div>

It is a sign of an overly developed frame (minset or worldview construct). Any incoming data will be compared and weighed against this mindset and if it doesn't fit the frame it will be tossed out and ignored or will be ridiculed. Most people do this and it is hard to get out of and developed a new frame that flexes.

 

When I read a story like this, I wonder at the science involved and why they never seem to put it in laymans terms, or at least try to.

20 light years away. If we get going 20x the speed of light, we'd only need to be on the road a year to get there. I hope the brakes work on the other end so we can get slowed down for the landing.

The planet could have disappeared or been hit by a meteor 18 years ago and we're out here thinking we see it.

Seeing this planet from 117,492,033,468,076.8 miles away is like looking at(studying) a sand grain at how many miles?
Probably a few thousand...

Does anyone here really believe they have any clue what they are seeing when they tell us it's 117.4 Trillion miles away?

Do they see Mountain Goats on the hills on this planet? Any signs of the wheel, or fire?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Apr 25 2007, 08:27 AM) [snapback]429773[/snapback]</div>

We will NEVER, EVER fix all the things we are doing wrong on this planet. To say or suggest that we should wait to explore until then would be to say the pilgrims shouldn't have come to America until they got things in Europe fixed.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Apr 25 2007, 11:39 AM) [snapback]429786[/snapback]</div>

you might have noticed how the previous poster veered off course first - i was just having a little fun if thats ok here. if i have entered the wrong set of realities does that mean i get punished or something - or perhaps you can just relax, sit down, smile, have a little fun, joke around??

why do you continue to gun for me? perhaps you can find a more worthy target to satisfy your inner cravings for confrontation?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Apr 25 2007, 11:50 AM) [snapback]429796[/snapback]</div>

i think the french intelligence services discovered this planet so the data must be accurate - i hope the president does not ignore it

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Apr 25 2007, 11:27 AM) [snapback]429773[/snapback]</div>

do mean real or perceived problems?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Apr 25 2007, 08:58 AM) [snapback]429802[/snapback]</div>

I'm in agreement if he is talking about the degradation of natural systems. Those are not perceived problems, they are indeed real. Bjorn Lomborg was wrong on many accounts. But I will agree that compared to many uneducated "hippy environmentalists" at least he tried to find facts.

 

responded to in a PM - talking about Mars was not off topic, these repeated attempts to talk about Iraq are. Let us have a discussion in peace without bringing politics into it, just this once?