Earth-like Planet Discovered

[Punkcat 0]

Earth-Like Planet Discovered Orbiting Nearby Star

For the first time, astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

 

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun....

Source : http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/04/26/earth-like-planet-discovered-orbiting-nearby-star.html

 

It makes me think of all the science-fiction stories I've read about humans living somewhere else in the universe. It seems it's becoming everyday less fiction and more science. Although there's still no possibility to travel those distances in a human lifetime, it may be like some stories about families of settlers that travel together and only their children or grandchildren get to arrive to the planet.

Earth-like is also a very wide concept, requiring right temperatures, gravity, and the possibility to have liquid water. From then on, I think everything else is considered to be likely to be "terraformed" to suit human needs.

[develCuy 0]

They can look at the end of the universe, but NEVER will change the truth. More than the science, the Bible is every time confirmed. Look at this: https://answersingenesis.org/

Actually we have to change our life style to save the nearest "habitable" planet near us: The Earth. Our planet is killed every day by every one, including me. Only a week ago was the Earth's Day.

Are the humanity stupid enough to forget this, faster than their dreams? answer your hEarth.

[Aniki 0]

Isn't Alpha Centauri the nearest habitable planet? In any case, I'm glad that we're still reaching towards the stars. It's unfortunate that we won't be there when it happens.I must scorn develcuy's comment on the bible. This is about exploring space, not disproving a dusty old book. However, I do agree that we have to sustain our planet. But even so, I'm sure that--if we colonize other planets--we'll still be on Earth. We won't just use it up and move on to the next planet. That's not what space exploration is attempting to do.

[toby 0]

Still, 20 light years away. What can we actually learn?

[richierich1m 0]

i also read about this planet,it is said to be 20 light years away from earth ,so it would atleast take us a century to reach that far or a decade if the scientist can develop the ability to tune antimatter ,this planet can be a good source to live when we would ultimately destroy our own planet with the amount of pollution we create @develcuy : Ignorant people always remain conservative in view but this is no way defying any religion ,its just a space exploration and nothing else that defies your christanity and that dusty bible.

[Quatrux 4]

It is good that more and more planets are found and that more and more information is gathered about space, universe, galaxies and etc. Even though, we can't imagine that we can go and explore those planets and other space objects today, well maybe we can imagine, but I guess our current technology can't do such things as it is to far at the distances we are thinking today. But all this information, which for some people may seem pointless is really valuable for future people, the more we gather, the more we research, the more info we will have, the better later and it doesn't matter that a lot of theories won't be right, or the result won't be the same as desired. For several or more years, I have been reading about new planets discovered outside our system and similar topics, the first ones, or some of them really are articles just to bring people reading them, as there are to much words, which might amaze them, but as I seen some TV shows/documentary about how they are discovering those planets, there is nothing to special about it, only the first steps of the first steps

[leafbunk 0]

Wow that's really exciting! I can't imagine how many more planets might be out there that have the potential to sustain life like here on Earth. I agree very much with Quatrux in saying that all of the information we're coming across and discovering about nearby planets and such really will have a great impact on future generations of explorers. What info we gather today can help us to continue to advance toward the ultimate goal of making our way out there to this new planet. It's really too bad it's so far away, and that we don't have the means right now to actually get to it. Space exploration can be so interesting. : )

[threesix 0]

aliens FTW! i think there has to be aliens on that planet and nobody can say no now. if you freeze some people on an automated flight and use remote acess to deforst them on the other side then they will be fine. they can travel far that way.

[Jeigh1405241495 0]

threesix, thats a nice plan, but unfortunately we still need technology that can do that before we can, you know, do that :)I like to believe there is life out there somewhere, obviously finding this planet proves nothing, but it would be amazing if life of any level was found there someday. Sure there is no reason to assume it'd be intelligent life, or advanced life, but regardless it could be very interesting indeed. Maybe this will reignite interest in researching new methods of space travel.On an aside, I also agree that we still need to save earth. Sci-Fi stuff that puts forth the idea "find a new planet and relocate" will never happen in time. We'd never have the technology to actually relocate any portion of the human population, thats just insane. Oh, and as far as I know, the Bible doesn't say aliens can't exist

[eminus 0]

well you really cant discount that there are still planets that are not discovered though I would strongly agree that there is no other life here in this universe but us. I personally dont believe on aliens or some other life besides us.

[xerxes1405241546 0]

eminus, I must admit that I'm always surprised with an approach like the one of yours. Let me explain my point of view: the humanity has barely started to explore its own solar system, not even our own galaxy. We have just put our foot on the Moon, and not even Mars yet. We don't even have the technical possibility to see (not to mention probing) all the planets circling only the stars nearest to our own homeworld. It's hard to say that we are sure of actually anything even about our immediate surroundings (space-wise).

 

Now let me put the above into proper perspective:

Our Sun is located on the outskirts of our Milkyway galaxy, in a region rather lightly populated with stars (minor Orion Arm). It is estimated that only our galaxy contains 200-400 billions stars. Our galaxy is one of the 30-50 others only in our Local Group. It is estimated that the observable universe contains billions of galaxies (between 1×10¹⁰ and 8×10¹⁰). But wait, there is more:

 

Our Sun (not even The Earth itself) is only 4.57 billion years old, whereas the universe itself has 13.7 billion years (3x more). Now compare that to a lifespan of a regular human being and that of our intelligent civilisation.

 

 

With all this in mind, what makes you believe that there is no (intelligent) life in the whole universe. I understand that emergence of such was a rather accidental on Earth, and is probably quite rare in the whole universe (especially the intelligent life), but with universe of that size and complexity it's hard to assume anything.

 

 

 

But getting back to the topic, I agree with Jeigh. Still, we all forget about one important issue: technology is not enough, as economical means are equally important. With these unresolved, even with the faster-than-light drive, humanity won't be able to afford the trip. As long as humanity is divided by meaningless issues, we won't able to advance onto stars, hence I believe focusing on our own homeworld first is not only an important issue (aside of space exploration) but, in fact, it should be the priority.

[beatgammit 0]

I am Christian and I believe in the possibility of life on other planets. I believe that God could have created other civilizations much like our own to live out their own existences. If we somehow meet these other peoples, I believe that we can learn much about them. I also support what you guys said about not disproving the bible; that isn't science's goal, science just tries to find out the most it can about the world.That being said, I think this is an interesting find, but something that we cannot really capitalize on in our present condition, as our science hasn't progress far enough to make any real use of this finding. I think it is a great find in that it supports the idea of life somewhere else in the universe. Hopefully we can find habitable planets closer to our own galaxy that we can have a chance to explore. Often times, science fiction makes aliens seem scary and destructive, but I believe that if we find some other life in the universe, they will be similar in motive to us, just trying to find out as much as possible. Hopefully we can approach this the same way.

[xerxes1405241546 0]

other civilizations much like our own to live out their own existences. If we somehow meet these other peoples

One of my biggest dreams, but biggest fears. Of course everybody expects a peaceful meeting and exchange of information, and that may be true if we initiate first contact remotely via some kind of long range medium (the common knowledge will evolve slowly). Our history shown however, how clashes of civilisations with different knowledge and strength levels occurred: blood and violence. Personally, I believe that life as we see it here on Earth is pretty unique (as evolution, by definition, is an accidental process), and we cannot expect something even remotely similar in other parts of the universe. Actually, with the size and complexity of our universe we cannot really expect anything, but I still think we should be ready for the worst. If things even similar to what we know from movies like Predator or Alien existed our current defences would be far from adequate. We shouldn't fall into paranoia, but I don't why people assume that any other civilisation would be eager to share their knowledge with a potential enemy, instead of just wiping it from the face of their own homeworld. Edited May 13, 2007 by xerxes (see edit history)

[HiddenKenshin 0]

One of my biggest dreams, but biggest fears. Of course everybody expects a peaceful meeting and exchange of information, and that may be true if we initiate first contact remotely via some kind of long range medium (the common knowledge will evolve slowly). Our history shown however, how clashes of civilisations with different knowledge and strength levels occurred: blood and violence. Personally, I believe that life as we see it here on Earth is pretty unique (as evolution, by definition, is an accidental process), and we cannot expect something even remotely similar in other parts of the universe. Actually, with the size and complexity of our universe we cannot really expect anything, but I still think we should be ready for the worst. If things even similar to what we know from movies like Predator or Alien existed our current defences would be far from adequate. We shouldn't fall into paranoia, but I don't why people assume that any other civilisation would be eager to share their knowledge with a potential enemy, instead of just wiping it from the face of their own homeworld.

Perhaps, just maybe, there might be the slight, off chance that, all humanity would finally realize they're not alone in this big universe. The previous statement sounds logical, but I mean this in a different way. If every nation would finally stop seeing themselves as European, Asian, American, etc... but as human, wouldn't that solve a lot of problems?

Our ego might be our biggest problem. I have no problem with an American, at all, and I pump battery acid through my veins when someone throws the American "fat, loud and obnoxious" stereotype at me. But I'll get all up in arms when I hear an American say the slightest disapproving thing about Europeans. Up 'till now, it's always been an "US" and THEM" situation on our own little sandbox of a planet. If the scenario changes into and US and THEM on a universal scale, what would the consequences be?

 

What would happen to religion, since many religions are centered around the creation of this planet, and this planet alone, by a superior being. What would happen to our languages? What would happen to the feeling that Man feels divided on it's own planet when he discovers that "Life" extends further than his own little sandbox?

 

I like to think positively, that we'd finally unite. That we'd change our angle on the US and THEM situation. This also makes me understand the people out there that "want to believe". Perhaps their seeing that "Man" needs this little confrontation.

[Punkcat 0]

There are many people that believe there may be a chance of finding another civilization like ours, more or less advanced. Much of what science has been doing is looking for earth-like planets where conditions are similar to our planet, in the hope either of finding traces of life or finding new places for human settlements. It is believed that if conditions are met (conditions found in Earth), life can appear as it did in our planet. And eventually, this would lead to evolution and advanced organisms, together with a form of civilization. Then of course comes the discussion of communication/confrontation with this civilization.I usually see this, but I sometimes think why it seems this is the only way to finding other beings in the universe. There is so much we don't know about everything, and I don't see why we can't think about other possibilities. I think there may be beings living in conditions opposite to ours - for example, take the organisms living out of metane and without sunlight in the bottom of our own oceans. And why do they have to have bodies at all...? They might be of pure energy, or pure time... They might not even need "starships" to travel space...Of course, it's easier to think about friends/enemies that we can at least see, because we rely on our senses for our experience of the world, of the universe. But what if that's not enough?