[quote='source']WASHINGTON — An orbiting NASA telescope is finding whole new worlds of possibilities in the search for alien life, including more than 50 potential planets that appear to be in the habitable zone.
In just a year of peering out at a small slice of the galaxy, the Kepler telescope has spotted 1,235 possible planets outside our solar system. Amazingly, 54 of them are seemingly in the zone that could be hospitable to life — that is, not too hot or too cold, Kepler chief scientist William Borucki said.
Until now, only two planets outside our solar system were even thought to be in the "Goldilocks zone." And both those discoveries are highly disputed.
Fifty-four possibilities is "an enormous amount, an inconceivable amount," Borucki said. "It's amazing to see this huge number because up to now, we've had zero."
The more than 1,200 newfound bodies are not confirmed as planets yet, but Borucki estimates 80 percent of them will eventually be verified. At least one other astronomer believes Kepler could be 90 percent accurate.
After that, it's another big step in proving that a confirmed planet has some of the basic conditions needed to support life, such as the proper size, composition, temperature and distance from its star. More advanced aspects of habitability such as specific atmospheric conditions and the presence of water and carbon require telescopes that aren't built yet.
Just because a planet is in the habitable zone doesn't mean it has life. Mars is a good example of that. And when scientists look for life, it's not necessarily intelligent life; it could be bacteria or mold or a form people can't even imagine.
Before Wednesday, and the announcement of Kepler's findings, the count of planets outside the solar system stood at 519. Kepler's latest list could potentially triple the number of known planets.
Raising hopes for alien life
Kepler found that there are many more relatively small planets, and more stars with more than one planet circling them — all hopeful signs in the search for life.
"We're seeing a lot of planets and that bodes well. We're seeing a lot of diversity," said Kepler co-investigator Jack Lissauer, an astronomer at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.
All the stars Kepler looks at are in our Milky Way galaxy, but they are so far away that traveling there is not a realistic option. In some cases it would take many millions of years with current technology.
What gets astronomers excited is that the more planets there are — especially those in the habitable zone — the greater the odds that life exists elsewhere in the universe.
Yale University astronomer Debra Fischer, who wasn't part of the Kepler team but serves as an outside expert for NASA, said the new information "gives us a much firmer footing" to hope for worlds that could harbor life. "I feel different today, knowing these new Kepler results, than I did a week ago," Fischer said.
Another outside astronomer, Lisa Kaltenegger of Harvard University, called the findings "exciting good news."
Kaltenegger said to be in the habitable zone, a planet has to be the proper distance from its star so that it could have liquid water on its surface, or ground temperatures roughly averaging between 32 degrees and 212 degrees Fahrenheit (zero to 100 degrees Celsius). That distance varies by star; weaker stars, for example, would require planets to be closer to be habitable.
During a news briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington, Borucki said that the Kepler mission's definition of habitability was fuzzier and not necessarily defined by a temperature scale.
Because of the various factors that could make planets more prone to life, Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, created a formula that puts a dollar value on these far-off planets. He set the theoretical value of the first planet closely similar to Earth at $1 million.
Until Wednesday, the highest value Laughlin assigned to an exoplanet, which is what astronomers call a planet outside our solar system, was a measly $158. One of Kepler's new discoveries is worth nearly a quarter-million dollars, Laughlin figures.
Confirmation still required
Kepler was launched in 2009 and orbits the sun between Earth and Mars. It needs time to find planets. It identifies them by watching them repeatedly move past the star they orbit.
Kepler scientists are strict about calling candidate planets confirmed. Of 400 candidate planets announced last year, only 15 of Kepler's discoveries have been confirmed — including a six-planet system that was reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
In addition to the pure numbers of planet candidates and their locations, their relative size also encourages astronomers. Kepler has found there are more planets considerably smaller than Jupiter — the biggest planet in our solar system — than there are giant planets.
Size matters when it comes to planets and their potential for life. Very large planets are unlikely to be solid; they are more prone to be gas behemoths like Jupiter. Astronomers think a planet needs to be solid — rocky like Earth or Mars — for life to develop.[/quote]
[url='http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41387915?GT1=43001']source[/url]
as cool as that is, space travel is not gonna happen in our lifetime so i'm not really fussed
[QUOTE=TINCAN;27816799]as cool as that is, space travel is not gonna happen in our lifetime so i'm not really fussed[/QUOTE]
Considering our generation is estimated to live a couple hundred years or more due to the advancements of stem cell research and shit, I wouldn't sell it short just yet.
[QUOTE=TINCAN;27816799]as cool as that is, space travel is not gonna happen in our lifetime so i'm not really fussed[/QUOTE]
Would be really cool though. I wish we had another space race but for more distant planets.
[QUOTE=Combine_dumb;27816832]Considering our generation is estimated to live a couple hundred years or more due to the advancements of stem cell research and shit, I wouldn't sell it short just yet.[/QUOTE]
welp
[QUOTE=Combine_dumb;27816832]Considering our generation is estimated to live a couple hundred years or more due to the advancements of stem cell research and shit, I wouldn't sell it short just yet.[/QUOTE]
Source on that living for a couple hundred years thing?
[QUOTE=Combine_dumb;27816832]Considering our generation is estimated to live a couple hundred years or more due to the advancements of stem cell research and shit, I wouldn't sell it short just yet.[/QUOTE]
Got any source on that? sounds interesting.
Derp [img]http://static.facepunch.com/fp/ratings/clock.png[/img]
Good then i can travel to new worlds in the future when i'm 75% cyborg.
[QUOTE=Ratboy14;27816836]Would be really cool though. I wish we had another space race but for more distant planets.[/QUOTE]
not many countries with the economies to be throwing wads of money at their space program.
[QUOTE=Combine_dumb;27816832]Considering our generation is estimated to live a couple hundred years or more due to the advancements of stem cell research and shit, I wouldn't sell it short just yet.[/QUOTE]
Source?
I wish I had a robotic arm.
Holy fuck. Doesn't anyone understand how huge this is? :psyduck:
[QUOTE=Frankiscool!;27816887]Source on that living for a couple hundred years thing?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Pridit;27816896]Got any source on that? sounds interesting.
Derp [img_thumb]http://static.facepunch.com/fp/ratings/clock.png[/img_thumb][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Dj-J3;27816960]Source?[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/can-humans-live.html[/url]
-snip-
We just need to mine it for its resources! :clint:
[QUOTE=Combine_dumb;27817027][url]http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/can-humans-live.html[/url][/QUOTE]
Imagine all the things you'd see all the way to the year 3000 :psyduck:
[QUOTE=Rooster Assassin;27817157]Imagine all the things you'd see all the way to the year 3000 :psyduck:[/QUOTE]
Would be awesome.
Whoa, that's amazing! I can't wait to see more information about these planets.
Less money on science! More money on bombs!!
[QUOTE=Rooster Assassin;27817157]Imagine all the things you'd see all the way to the year 3000 :psyduck:[/QUOTE]
Half Life 2: Episode 3! :3:
if the entire united states military budget was fixated on space we'd probably be halfway there
That's potentially awesome.
[QUOTE=Lambeth;27817497]That's potentially awesome.[/QUOTE]
Nah, it is actually being awesome right now.
[editline]2nd February 2011[/editline]
We had only found 2 planets in their star's habitable zone before, and now we have something like 50 of them.
I bet at least one of them will be earthlike.
[QUOTE=ThePutty;27817469]if the entire united states military budget was fixated on space we'd probably be halfway there[/QUOTE]
If the entire Earth's military budget were spent on other things we'd live forever and have developed everything ever.
[QUOTE=munky91;27817592]If the entire Earth's military budget were spent on other things we'd live forever and have developed everything ever.[/QUOTE]
It's sad actually. We can't even put our differences aside for our own future. :smith:
[img]http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/2947/newdawn2preview.jpg[/img]
Imagine all those countless alien worlds.
[editline]2nd February 2011[/editline]
They're out there,[I] for real[/I].
It's so overwhelming to think that since space is so fucking huge, the odds are against the possibility of us being the only live ones.
So now that there's about 50 of them, there must be at least 150 of them.. or 150 million.
More important question is, what kinda creatures would there be? Another set of humans? Or maybe a world without any intelligent species.. imagine some alien world pretty much like our earth, except it's all nature! But who would be the survival of the fittest in there? Would they utilize technologies to further improve life as we do it?
Either way, if there are more intelligent alien worlds out there, it must mean [b]war[/b]! To determine the new survival of the fittest, motherfuckers!
[b]Edit[/b] Also at people who don't think shit will go down during our life times; Maybe not, but considering the technological advancements for the last 10 years, shit is gonna be great
I don't get it. People go "Haw haw! There's a 1 in a trillion chance of their being life out there, it's impossible"
What they don't seem to get is that there are literally trillions of trillions of trillions of trillions of planets out there. 1 in a trillion doesn't seem so small if you multiply both numbers by a trillion.
But Jee I wonder what life is on there. This is amazing.
[QUOTE=Miskatonic;27817064]We just need to mine it for its resources! :clint:[/QUOTE]
Yeah, and discover a rare artifact which almost destroys humanity and then a random dude save us.
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