Scientists Spot a new Earthlike Planet bigger than Pluto

[cycloneye]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11013519/

Wow how vast is the universe that we can find new things out there.

[alicia-w]

i just finished reading that. isnt it amazing?

[cycloneye]

i just finished reading that. isnt it amazing?

Yes the word amazing is the best one that fits the best to this.

[Terrell]

That's a wonderful discovery. I do wonder whether or not that star has other planets inside the orbit of the one we've discovered. Given that it's a red dwarf star though I'd doubt that any planet there is warm enough for us to live on. Hope they find something similiar around an orange or yellow dwarf star.

[milankovitch]

That's a wonderful discovery. I do wonder whether or not that star has other planets inside the orbit of the one we've discovered. Given that it's a red dwarf star though I'd doubt that any planet there is warm enough for us to live on. Hope they find something similiar around an orange or yellow dwarf star.

Its entirely possible to have warm planets in a red dwarf system. One example is Gliese 876. The inner planet is 7.5 times the mass of earth at 0.02AU (AU=earth orbit), the planet is very hot around 640K. The next planet out is about half the size of Jupiter and at Earth temperatures on average. The last planet in the system is twice the mass of Jupiter and of comparable temperature. The main problem facing life on planets orbiting red dwarf is that since they are vulnerable to solar flares since they are so close.

*Temperatures are effective temperatures (assuming the planet is a black body with no atmosphere). If there is a Venus-like atmosphere it is going to be way off; Mars is of by 5K, Earth's is off 35K, Venus is of by over 400K.

[Terrell]

That's a wonderful discovery. I do wonder whether or not that star has other planets inside the orbit of the one we've discovered. Given that it's a red dwarf star though I'd doubt that any planet there is warm enough for us to live on. Hope they find something similiar around an orange or yellow dwarf star.

Its entirely possible to have warm planets in a red dwarf system. One example is Gliese 876. The inner planet is 7.5 times the mass of earth at 0.02AU (AU=earth orbit), the planet is very hot around 640K. The next planet out is about half the size of Jupiter and at Earth temperatures on average. The last planet in the system is twice the mass of Jupiter and of comparable temperature. The main problem facing life on planets orbiting red dwarf is that since they are vulnerable to solar flares since they are so close.

*Temperatures are effective temperatures (assuming the planet is a black body with no atmosphere). If there is a Venus-like atmosphere it is going to be way off; Mars is of by 5K, Earth's is off 35K, Venus is of by over 400K.

That's interesting that a roughly Saturn (Jupiter is 1300x the volume of Earth, Saturn is around 750x the volume of Earth) sized planet is in orbit around a red dwarf star, in it's Goldilocks zone. I didn't know about that planet. Would be even more interesting if that Saturn sized planet has any moons with atmospheres, and liquid water. Thanks for the new info.

[milankovitch]

That's a wonderful discovery. I do wonder whether or not that star has other planets inside the orbit of the one we've discovered. Given that it's a red dwarf star though I'd doubt that any planet there is warm enough for us to live on. Hope they find something similiar around an orange or yellow dwarf star.

Its entirely possible to have warm planets in a red dwarf system. One example is Gliese 876. The inner planet is 7.5 times the mass of earth at 0.02AU (AU=earth orbit), the planet is very hot around 640K. The next planet out is about half the size of Jupiter and at Earth temperatures on average. The last planet in the system is twice the mass of Jupiter and of comparable temperature. The main problem facing life on planets orbiting red dwarf is that since they are vulnerable to solar flares since they are so close.

*Temperatures are effective temperatures (assuming the planet is a black body with no atmosphere). If there is a Venus-like atmosphere it is going to be way off; Mars is of by 5K, Earth's is off 35K, Venus is of by over 400K.

That's interesting that a roughly Saturn (Jupiter is 1300x the volume of Earth, Saturn is around 750x the volume of Earth) sized planet is in orbit around a red dwarf star, in it's Goldilocks zone. I didn't know about that planet. Would be even more interesting if that Saturn sized planet has any moons with atmospheres, and liquid water. Thanks for the new info.

That Saturn sized planet has a fairly eccentric orbit, and its inside of Mercury's orbit on average its 0.13AU away so it isn't exactly perfect there are a few that are better. There are probably about a dozen or so giant planets that could possibly have moons with liquid water.

Also got my information from extrasolar.net

[Terrell]

That's a wonderful discovery. I do wonder whether or not that star has other planets inside the orbit of the one we've discovered. Given that it's a red dwarf star though I'd doubt that any planet there is warm enough for us to live on. Hope they find something similiar around an orange or yellow dwarf star.

Its entirely possible to have warm planets in a red dwarf system. One example is Gliese 876. The inner planet is 7.5 times the mass of earth at 0.02AU (AU=earth orbit), the planet is very hot around 640K. The next planet out is about half the size of Jupiter and at Earth temperatures on average. The last planet in the system is twice the mass of Jupiter and of comparable temperature. The main problem facing life on planets orbiting red dwarf is that since they are vulnerable to solar flares since they are so close.

*Temperatures are effective temperatures (assuming the planet is a black body with no atmosphere). If there is a Venus-like atmosphere it is going to be way off; Mars is of by 5K, Earth's is off 35K, Venus is of by over 400K.

That's interesting that a roughly Saturn (Jupiter is 1300x the volume of Earth, Saturn is around 750x the volume of Earth) sized planet is in orbit around a red dwarf star, in it's Goldilocks zone. I didn't know about that planet. Would be even more interesting if that Saturn sized planet has any moons with atmospheres, and liquid water. Thanks for the new info.

That Saturn sized planet has a fairly eccentric orbit, and its inside of Mercury's orbit on average its 0.13AU away so it isn't exactly perfect there are a few that are better. There are probably about a dozen or so giant planets that could possibly have moons with liquid water.

Also got my information from extrasolar.net

Thanks. Will be awesome when we find a planet with a nearly circular orbit within a star's goldilocks zone. Of course the size of a star's goldilocks zone will vary with the star's age as well as the star's class. Of course the type of atmosphere the planet has will be important too.

Could you imagine if Mars had the gravity to hold on to an atmosphere comparable (but a little thicker) to Earth or if Venus' atmosphere was a little thinner than Earth's. If that were possible maybe there would be water in liquid form on the surface of 3 planets instead of one.

Of course we cannot forget that there may be biospheres on much colder moons, where their interiors are heated by tidal flexing. Europa may have such an environment, would be interesting to find life in a subsurface ocean on a Jovian moon, of course this assumes there really is a subsurface ocean, and is easier said than done.

[coriolis]

It ain't life as we know it unless they have football.

[azsnowman]

Maybe I should pack my bags and move there, MAYBE just MAYBE it SNOWS there cuz it DANG sure don't snow here anymore!

Dennis

[Terrell]

It ain't life as we know it unless they have football.

No, they just aren't intelligent life if they don't have football (or their own equivalent sport) or if they cannot build a radio transmitter. Who knows, maybe they have a sport we'd like as much or better than football, which would be amazing because I'd rather watch two bad football teams play each other than 2 good teams from any other sport.

Life as we know it merely needs to be something we can easily recognize as life, it need not be intelligent.

[milankovitch]

Thanks. Will be awesome when we find a planet with a nearly circular orbit within a star's goldilocks zone. Of course the size of a star's goldilocks zone will vary with the star's age as well as the star's class. Of course the type of atmosphere the planet has will be important too.

Could you imagine if Mars had the gravity to hold on to an atmosphere comparable (but a little thicker) to Earth or if Venus' atmosphere was a little thinner than Earth's. If that were possible maybe there would be water in liquid form on the surface of 3 planets instead of one.

Of course we cannot forget that there may be biospheres on much colder moons, where their interiors are heated by tidal flexing. Europa may have such an environment, would be interesting to find life in a subsurface ocean on a Jovian moon, of course this assumes there really is a subsurface ocean, and is easier said than done.

There's a few telescopes going up in the next few years that will be looking for extrasolar planets.

COROT 2007
Kepler 2008
SIM 2011
Darwin 2014
TPF 2014

Keppler and SIM will be able to detect earthlike planets, planets that could support life. Although we might just get lucky and see one with gravitational microlensing like the topic planet. Darwin and TPF or some comparable telescope could detect an atmosphere largely composed of oxygen, which would mean life. I think telescopes will find life before any missions to Mars or Eurpoa do.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Wahooooooo!!! I hope we find a liveable one with a youger star by about a billion or two years...So we can move there!!!!

[HurricaneBill]

::sings::

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft........

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

[coriolis]

It ain't life as we know it unless they have football.

No, they just aren't intelligent life if they don't have football (or their own equivalent sport) or if they cannot build a radio transmitter. Who knows, maybe they have a sport we'd like as much or better than football, which would be amazing because I'd rather watch two bad football teams play each other than 2 good teams from any other sport.

Life as we know it merely needs to be something we can easily recognize as life, it need not be intelligent.

I hate it when people give intelligent answers to my dumb comments

[Terrell]

It ain't life as we know it unless they have football.

No, they just aren't intelligent life if they don't have football (or their own equivalent sport) or if they cannot build a radio transmitter. Who knows, maybe they have a sport we'd like as much or better than football, which would be amazing because I'd rather watch two bad football teams play each other than 2 good teams from any other sport.

Life as we know it merely needs to be something we can easily recognize as life, it need not be intelligent.

I hate it when people give intelligent answers to my dumb comments

Sorry, force of habit.

[Terrell]

Thanks. Will be awesome when we find a planet with a nearly circular orbit within a star's goldilocks zone. Of course the size of a star's goldilocks zone will vary with the star's age as well as the star's class. Of course the type of atmosphere the planet has will be important too.

Could you imagine if Mars had the gravity to hold on to an atmosphere comparable (but a little thicker) to Earth or if Venus' atmosphere was a little thinner than Earth's. If that were possible maybe there would be water in liquid form on the surface of 3 planets instead of one.

Of course we cannot forget that there may be biospheres on much colder moons, where their interiors are heated by tidal flexing. Europa may have such an environment, would be interesting to find life in a subsurface ocean on a Jovian moon, of course this assumes there really is a subsurface ocean, and is easier said than done.

There's a few telescopes going up in the next few years that will be looking for extrasolar planets.

COROT 2007
Kepler 2008
SIM 2011
Darwin 2014
TPF 2014

Keppler and SIM will be able to detect earthlike planets, planets that could support life. Although we might just get lucky and see one with gravitational microlensing like the topic planet. Darwin and TPF or some comparable telescope could detect an atmosphere largely composed of oxygen, which would mean life. I think telescopes will find life before any missions to Mars or Eurpoa do.

On missions to Europa you're most likely right, especially since the JIMO mission was cancelled (funding and the new return to Luna go to Mars, and beyond initiative). Without that mission (or another mission with the same objective, the suspected subsurface ocean on Europa (as well as Ganymede and Callisto) likely cannot be confirmed. Without confirmation of those ocean's there's no real point in looking for life in Europa. In addition getting through the ice to actually look around is also VERY difficult, since humans cannot survive on Europa, due to radiation from Jupiter.

Missions to Mars might find life (in terms of extinct life) before we find an earth like planet in the right orbit with the right atmosphere, but they'd probably have to get lucky to do so. I'd say it's probably more likely that you are right on this one than you being wrong. Either way, I'd be ecstatic beyond words if life on another planet was confirmed.

I was very happy in 1996 (or was that 1995) when they thought they'd found microfossils in a meteorite that came from Mars and had crashed in Antartica. Of course those potential microfossils were way smaller than the smallest bacteria that we knew of at the time (before we discovered nanobacteria on Earth). Sometimes I still wonder about that rock.

[milankovitch]

It wouldn't just be a plant with the right atmosphere, there is only one way to get an oxygen atmosphere, life. Although who knows one of the rovers might find a fossil on some hillside.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

This is wonderful, not so long ago we could never find a rockie planet outside of our solar system. In now we got one. Its 5 times the size of earth just think of the pressure being 5 times that of earth...That would also hold a thicker Atmopshere an weather. Maybe even some kind of ocean. Hell there might even be hurricanes!!!

Its time to start building the ships!!!


So this proves that rockie planets can be much bigger then earth.

[feederband]

::sings::

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft........

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

That brings back some brain cells that I thought I destroyed when listening to that tune eons ago....