50 New Planets Discovered, One Could Potentially Support Life
- Posted on September 13, 2011 at 3:30pm by
Liz Klimas
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645-50-16-1. Those aren’t lott0 numbers. These are numbers associated with the recent findings of new planets outside our solar system.
645: The total number of planets existing in 503 systems outside of our own. Wesley Traub, chief scientist of NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Space.com that we’ll soon reach the 1,000 planet mark.
50: The total number of new exoplanets — planets that exist outside of our solar system — announced yesterday. The largest amount of planets discovered at one time.
16: The number of “super-Earths” among the 50 new planets. According to Space.com, a super-Earths are “potentially rocky worlds that are more massive than our planet.”
1: A planet discovered that may inhabitable. The New York Times reports that scientists are saying it could be a “Goldilocks planet” — just right for supporting life like that on Earth:
European astronomers said Monday that they had found what might be the best candidate for a Goldilocks planet yet: a lump of something about 3.6 times as massive as the Earth, circling its star at the right distance for liquid water to exist on its surface — and thus, perhaps, to host life, as we narrowly imagine it.
The planet, known as HD 85512b, is about 36 light-years from here, in the constellation Vela. It orbits its star at about a quarter of the distance that Earth circles the Sun, taking 58 days to make a year. That distance would put it in the star’s so-called habitable zone, if the planet is rocky and has some semblance of an atmosphere — “if everything goes right and you have clouds to shelter you,” as Lisa Kaltenegger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, summarized it.
Astronomers cautioned, however, that it would take years and observations from telescopes not yet built before those assumptions could be tested and a search for signs of life could be undertaken.
Neither humans nor their robot helpers are likely to be dispatched toward Vela anytime soon. But the finding did vault HD 85512b to the top of a list of the handful of Goldilocks candidates.
his diagram shows the distances of the planets in the Solar System (upper row) in the new HD 85512 system (middle) and in the Gliese 581 system (lower row), from their respective stars (left). The habitable zone is indicated as the blue area. (Image: ESO)
Watch the report on these planetary discoveries:
The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), a 11.8-foot telescope, at the European Southern Observatory’s location in La Silla, Chile, identified these 50 additional planets. Discovery notes that of the 376 stars similar to the Sun that were evaluated, 40 percent had at least one planet with a mass less than Saturn. Discovery explains the impressiveness of the find:
Just doing some very rough math, 10 percent of the stars in the Milky Way could easily be called Sun-like. If 40 percent of those host planets the size of Saturn or smaller, there are billions of planets that size in our galaxy alone.
This image shows the sky around the star HD 85512. The remarkable rocky planet HD 85512b that orbits this star is far too faint and too close in to be visible in this image. (Photo: ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin)
Space.com reports that HARPS uses a technique that “looks for repeated fluctuations in a star‘s movement potentially caused by a planet’s gravitational pull.” NASA’s Kepler Observatory, on the other hand, uses a telescope that looks for changes in the star’s brightness, which could indicate a planet has passed in front of it. Kepler has observed 1,200 potential planets that are still being reviewed for validity.
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Comments (47)
WatchOutForTheRINOShills
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:36amIf you want to see something fascinating in the stars, check out Comet Elenin. This “comet” has just passed our Sun, will be in line between the Sun and the Earth around September 25-26, and come closest to the Earth on October 17th. The first week of November, our orbit will take us thru the debris tail. With Haley’s Comet, the media hypped its coming for months, with Elenin…nothing… why? For the “official” information on Elenin’s orbit, you can check out the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-255. You can “see” Elenin on wwww.google.com/sky. Click on “Constellations” (lower right), then find the picture of a lion’s head (“Leo”), and click on that. Just as a screen marker, put your finger somewhere around the line representing one of the lion’s “front legs.” Then, (and this is the most important part!), in the upper right corner, click on “infrared”…you will then see Comet Elenin right in the area where your finger is touching the screen. Infrared = now you see it, no infrared = now you don’t… Elenin WILL be visible as it gets closer but you wonder what else will “be visible” shortly. If you want additional information, go on to http://www.YouTube.com and check for videos on Elenin for more “updates.” Look to the skies and be prepared…
Report Post »FranklinK
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:09amHow can anyone peer into the eyepiece of a telescope and not see the wonders of God? How can anyone look at a Periodic Table of the Elements and not see the Intelligent Design? How can anyone profess that all of this is simple mathematical probability?
Report Post »hellnomo
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 7:15amThe real question is,”can it support SUV’s?”
Report Post »ConservDadASD
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:22amAnother question… Does Walmart know about this? Or McDonalds and Wendy’s?
Report Post »NuffSaid
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 6:27amWhat happens when you do not find life on any of these planets? Conclusions?
Report Post »thop1960
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 8:49amNothing. You just keep searching the other 99.9% of the universe for life. We are only scratching the surface of what is out there. There may not be any other life out there, we may be the exception, God may have planned it that way. But then again, He never said we were exclusive. He said we are His children, but not His only children. Just saying.
Report Post »jacks
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 12:27amGreat! Now if we just had a space program.
Report Post »ConservDadASD
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:24amNow if only we can develop a Star Gate (c) program.
Report Post »conservativewoman
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 11:33pmBeautiful pictures of the Milky Way. It makes some of the hateful comments posted on the Blaze seem very small and petty.
Report Post »Rayblue
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 11:13pmLooking at these planets is looking at the past of these planets. Anything that could be discovered about them will be completely different if we were to physically travel there.
Report Post »If my sad little calculator is correct, these planets are 6,706,166.29 miles away.
At the speeds our probes now attain, it would take approximately 170 thousand years to get there.
Learning about them can be an enjoyable exercise but with little real value. IMO.
AOL_REFUGEE
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 10:26pmSo, if you use the argument of playing the odds, what with the size of the universe, the gazillions of stars and planets, etc., etc., etc., you might suppose that there just HAS to be a planet out there with all the right conditions for supporting life.
You might further suppose that there are MANY such planets out there, enough that there must be one that not only has life, but INTELLIGENT life, even life MORE ADVANCED than us; AND it existed at a point in time that allowed any signs or signals from it to currently reach us.
But, so far, WHAT? Nothing. Nada. Nix. Not even a “smoke signal”. All evidence so far supports the argument that there is doodley-squat (a highly technical term) out there; OR, if there is, it‘s so far away that we’d never be aware of its existence or be able to interact with it anyway.
Report Post »Famous Potatoes
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 10:25pmMormons have a home. Leave ‘em alone.
Report Post »Nauss
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 10:21pmugh…who cares? It’s not like we are going to make use of the natural resources from that planet.
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 9:42pmThe New Home Mormons are waiting for! Bye Bye! Time for ya’all to go!
Report Post »GERATMO
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:50amIdiot
Report Post »sagitr
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:05pmMaybe we can send you and Obama.
Report Post »Chappy123
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 9:26pmThose on this planet have screwed thigs up so bad, let’s hope they leave them alone.
Report Post »Al J Zira
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 9:22pmHow many times hace we heard a story like this? Everytime a scientists looks into the sky and finds a star it’s said to “potentially” support life. Until I get a phone call from another planet I’m not buying it.
Report Post »ConservDadASD
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:46amHey there Earth People… this is ALF. I notice that your oil and other resources are running out. We on the other hand, have lost our cat species… i propose a toast.
Report Post »ConservDadASD
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:48amtoast? … I meant a “trade”
Report Post »holy ghostbuster
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 8:54pmHow could god do this to us? Don’t you you thing he has his hands full with all of his personal relationships here on Earth?
Report Post »thegodfather
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 8:51pmI hope Al Gore has alerted them about global warming
Report Post »smokegray
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 7:54amyeah, so our government can rape them with taxes and useless regulations…lol
Report Post »suzannegentle
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 8:46pmMaybe they will find kolob…..
Report Post »tangonine
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 8:00pmAs a physicist and an amateur astronomer, I say: “Who cares?”
Not like we’re going there or anything. The previous 3 administrations have gutted our space program and left us with no hope. All we have to look forward to is fighting within our own spheres of influence to keep our families alive. Humanity has evolved exactly zero.
Report Post »Slayer
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 8:37pm“As a physicist and an amateur astronomer” – you claim to be into physics and astronomy and dismiss the discovery of new planets?
Report Post »That’s like a Liberal dismissing the idea of new taxes.
varptr
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 9:55pmHaven’t you heard, in Obamanism, us socialist hive insects don’t need space programs. As the queen bee at the local union of hive workers local 506 has pointed out, we just need to collect more of other people’s honey, honey. We may already be stuck in District 9, they call it….. EARTH… aaaaahhhh!!
Report Post »Dr. Frank Lippenheimer
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 7:53pmShow me the money .
Report Post »conservative_teacher
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 7:09pmI’ll go. Where do I sign up?
Report Post »louise
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 6:48pmI thought of this scripture as I read this article.
Report Post »Isaiah 51:16 ~~~ And I have put My words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of Mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art My people.
Ex-Democrat
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 6:32pm“ONE COULD POTENTIALLY SUPPORT LIFE”
Excellent! Let’s get NASA started on sending all the liberals to that planet, where they can finally be happy and build their utopia!
Report Post »platitude
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 6:40pmOr better yet, we could send all of the fake self made men (who in fact inherited wealth) and there they can create the capitalist utopia “Galts Gultch”.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 6:51pmSorry, NASA’s job is now to help Muslims feel good about their contributions to science and math.
Report Post »republic2011
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 6:24pmGood. Send Al Gore and all his progressive contemporaries there. We can get back to normal here.
Report Post »ConservDadASD
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 10:30amJust fake some more evidence (they’ve done it before it can be done again) that global warming is happening there and Algore will be taking the next starship (or Star Gate) out of orbit.
Report Post »Ham
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 6:03pmI am going to start packing my bags. I want to check it out. So it will only take 35 years to get to the new planet if I can just go at the speed of light. not a problem.
Report Post »DonnaA
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 6:03pmGood! I hope all those progressive socialist marxist start their own “perfect” world. Oh, and take the crazy muslims with you when you go.
Report Post »But alas! they won’t have anyone to parade their power over!
gman4691
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 5:46pmSorry to pop the bubble but life is a lot more complicated than “just add water”
Report Post »InversionTheory
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 6:15pmTrue. We need some far more sensitive instruments to know what’s there. A space-based interferometer, for example, might give us enough of a spectral signature to determine the constituent chemicals in the atmosphere. Something this large seems quite likely to hold onto an atmosphere and if the atmosphere is far outside a natural chemical equilibrium, we’ll have a strong suspicion of life.
It’s not much to go on, really. But absolutely fascinating.
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