Do You Believe In Aliens or UFOs?
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Nice try.
"It brings down the mass [of the lightest known exoplanet] by more than a factor of two. The previous smallest was around five Earth masses," said Andrew Collier Cameron, an astronomer at the University of Saint Andrews in the U.K. who was not involved in the find.
(Related: "Mysterious 'Super Earth' Is Smallest Known Exoplanet?")
Near Neighbor
Gliese 581, a red dwarf star in the constellation Libra, lies around 20.5 light-years from Earth.
"In astronomical terms it is one of our near neighbors, the 87th closest known star system to the sun," said Carole Haswell, an astronomer at the Open University in Milton Keynes, U.K.
Since planets orbiting Gliese 581 are too far away to be seen directly, Mayor and colleagues originally spotted Gliese 581d by searching for tiny wobbles in the host star's motion using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope at La Silla in Chile.
Weighing in at around seven Earth masses, Gliese 581d is unlikely to be made of rocks alone, the team believes.
"We can only speculate at this stage, but it may have a rocky core, encased in an icy layer, with a liquid ocean at the surface and an atmosphere," Mayor said.
Meanwhile, the much smaller and lighter Gliese 581e "probably doesn't look too different to Earth, except that it will be very hot, because it is so close to its host star," said Andrew Norton, an astronomer also at the Open University.
Norton's colleague Haswell added: "It is very exciting that such a promising candidate for an Earthlike planet has been found so close to us. It means there are likely to be many more when we search further."
And the more Earthlike planets there are, the greater the chance of discovering one that harbors life.
"I think it is only a matter of time," Norton said. "If life really does exist elsewhere in the universe, then within the next 10 to 15 years I expect we may see the first signs of life, via spectroscopic signals from exoplanets."
Theoretical hogwash isn't evidence. This planet is twice the size of earth and shows no evidence of having an earth-like atmosphere or any conditions required for life. The evidence doesn't exist because it DOESN'T EXIST. Even the scientists who found this planet aren't claiming that it is evidence for life outside of earth.
"It brings down the mass [of the lightest known exoplanet] by more than a factor of two. The previous smallest was around five Earth masses," said Andrew Collier Cameron, an astronomer at the University of Saint Andrews in the U.K. who was not involved in the find.
(Related: "Mysterious 'Super Earth' Is Smallest Known Exoplanet?")
Near Neighbor
Gliese 581, a red dwarf star in the constellation Libra, lies around 20.5 light-years from Earth.
"In astronomical terms it is one of our near neighbors, the 87th closest known star system to the sun," said Carole Haswell, an astronomer at the Open University in Milton Keynes, U.K.
Since planets orbiting Gliese 581 are too far away to be seen directly, Mayor and colleagues originally spotted Gliese 581d by searching for tiny wobbles in the host star's motion using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope at La Silla in Chile.
Weighing in at around seven Earth masses, Gliese 581d is unlikely to be made of rocks alone, the team believes.
"We can only speculate at this stage, but it may have a rocky core, encased in an icy layer, with a liquid ocean at the surface and an atmosphere," Mayor said.
Meanwhile, the much smaller and lighter Gliese 581e "probably doesn't look too different to Earth, except that it will be very hot, because it is so close to its host star," said Andrew Norton, an astronomer also at the Open University.
Norton's colleague Haswell added: "It is very exciting that such a promising candidate for an Earthlike planet has been found so close to us. It means there are likely to be many more when we search further."
And the more Earthlike planets there are, the greater the chance of discovering one that harbors life.
"I think it is only a matter of time," Norton said. "If life really does exist elsewhere in the universe, then within the next 10 to 15 years I expect we may see the first signs of life, via spectroscopic signals from exoplanets."
Theoretical hogwash isn't evidence. This planet is twice the size of earth and shows no evidence of having an earth-like atmosphere or any conditions required for life. The evidence doesn't exist because it DOESN'T EXIST. Even the scientists who found this planet aren't claiming that it is evidence for life outside of earth.
Exactly - and repeating probabilities of life outside of earth without evidence doesn't make it true.
You really worked hard to back-track on your original statement didn't you?
Let's review:
The linkage I provided firmly rebuts that assertion.
Better luck next time!
Um, it's an earth-like planet. Good lord, the laws of statistical probability practically guarantee that there are millions of earth-like planets, and it would be amazing if more than some of them didn't contain some form of life.
I have this neighbour that swore up and down it wasn't possible for there to be water on mars, and even though they found it and it was put to bed, he STILL swears it's all some conspiracy. Don't be like that guy.
A planet twice the size of earth that is way hotter than earth doesn't really resemble earth - not to mention that the scientists are merely speculating about the geographical and climate conditions that exist on this planet. They have 0 evidence.
Statistical probability based on what? To make a claim that there is another earth-like planet supporting life you would require hard evidence. This evidence DOES NOT EXIST. Even the scientists who claim that there may be life out there admit that there is no evidence to date that there is, nor have they found a planet that supports life. Theories regarding far away planets that MIGHT support life isn't evidence that life exists outside of earth. Science requires evidence, not theories.
Why do you CARE if life is found on other planets? What's at stake really? We got over the earth not being flat, it orbiting around the sun, being 12 billion years old, the truth of carbon-14 dating, water on mars, evidence of life on mars, etc. It's just another thing to accept, and it will happen. Perhaps not in your lifetime, but it's going to happen.
I don't care. But I'm saying there is NO evidence that life exists outside of earth and the probabilities spouted out by astronomers is pure speculation based on 0 evidence. We got over the earth not being flat, orbiting the sun, and being 12 billion because we had hard scientific data that proved the earth to be round, orbiting the sun, and being 12 billion years old. Where is the same data regarding the existence of life outside of earth?
"remotely resembles earth"
Your words.
So, now it has to "really resemble" earth to qualify? And it has to have proven geographical features and climate conditions to meet your new standard?
How often are we going to change the rules of this game?
I don't think anybody is arguing any exists but you. We've been saying that it is highly likely life exists elsewhere, which is the common belief based upon all available evidence. Could there be none? Sure. Is that likely? No.
To be similar to earth, a planet must been in a solar system in which the star is the same size and age as our sun, and that planet must orbit this sun from a similar distance and must experience the same gravitational pull from planets closer and farther than it from the sun. This planet must be of similar diameter and shape as ours, and have a similar elemental composition in both the core and the atmosphere. These are the most basic requirements for the development of life as ALL evidence to date points to. If the only example of life is found on the conditions that exist on our planet, what evidence do we have that life can exist outside of these conditions?
And yet no scientist will defintely claim that life exists outside of earth. I don't understand where you guys are getting this probability that there is life outside of earth - where is the evidence that supports the probability of this probability?
LOOK UP - -
The statitistics
1) The number of galaxies. An estimated 50 billion galaxies are visible with modern telescopes and the total number in the universe must surely exceed this number by a huge factor, but we will be conservative and simply double it. That's 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe.
2) The number of stars in an average galaxy. As many as hundreds of billions in each galaxy.
Lets call it just 100 billion.
That's 100,000,000,000 stars per galaxy.
3)The number of stars in the universe.
So the total number of stars in the universe is roughly 100 billion x 100 billion.
That's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, 10 thousand, billion, billion. Properly known as 10 sextillion. And that's a very conservative estimate.
4) The number of stars that have planetary systems. The original extra-solar system planet hunting technology dictated that a star needed to be to close to us for a planet to be detected, usually by the stars 'wobble'. Better technology that allows us to measure the dimming of a stars brightness when a planet crosses its disk has now revolutionised planet hunting and new planets are being discovered at an ever increasing rate. So far (August 2003) around 100 have been discovered so we have very little data to work on for this estimate. Even so, most cosmologists believe that planetary formation around a star is quite common place. For the sake of argument let us say it's not and rate it at only one in a million and only one planet in each system, as we want a conservative estimate, not an exaggerated one. That calculation results in:
10,000,000,000,000,000 planets in the universe. Ten million, billion, as a conservative estimate.
5) The number planets capable of supporting life. Let's assume that this is very rare among planets and rate it at only one in a million. Simple division results in:
10,000,000,000 planets in the universe capable of producing life. Ten billion!
The sheer size of your Universe. Granted, I'm not claiming that the existence of life outside our solar system is a scientifically proven fact like say, Evolution, but it's pretty damn likely.
Science requires proof to make definite claims - Unitl we actually see one - Science will not make such claims - Even an E-mail from Andromeda would not be PROOF -
This is my problem with these figures - it makes the unwarranted assumption that there are planets capable of supporting life. Where is the proof that there are planets out there that can support life and how can anyone make any speculations about the probability of life-supporting planets without a shred of evidence?
There is no evidence to base any probability that predicts the existence of life-supporting planets.
Exactly - so the lack of evidence of life outside of earth means that life doesn't exist outside of earth. As soon as evidence is found that life exists or has existed outside of earth, I will believe in aliens. Until then I cannot believe!
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