Small, rocky, earth-like planet discovered

[Cowperson]

In a discovery that has left one expert stunned, European astronomers have found one of the smallest planets known outside our solar system, a world about 14 times the mass of our own around a star much like the sun.

It could be a rocky planet with a thin atmosphere, a sort of "super Earth," the researchers said today.

If I'm not mistaken, only gas giants, probably unhabitable, have been discovered so far. If this is a rocky planet, it would probably be the first ever announced.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/08/...anet/index.html

Cowperson

[octothorp]

Interesting the timing of this, only weeks after scientists suggest that our solar system might actually be unique.

[Cowperson]

Originally posted by octothorp@Aug 26 2004, 09:18 PM
Interesting the timing of this, only weeks after scientists suggest that our solar system might actually be unique.

I was thinking the same thing.

Its only a matter of time, in our lifetimes certainly, before someone discovers a world like ours. My prediction.

Cowperson

[troutman]

I thought this would happen (in an earlier thread) but not so soon! Fantastic.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/index.php?sho...43&hl=planetary

[Kidder]

Originally posted by Cowperson+Aug 26 2004, 09:21 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Cowperson @ Aug 26 2004, 09:21 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-octothorp@Aug 26 2004, 09:18 PM
Interesting the timing of this, only weeks after scientists suggest that our solar system might actually be unique.

I was thinking the same thing.

Its only a matter of time, in our lifetimes certainly, before someone discovers a world like ours. My prediction.

Cowperson [/b][/quote]
Or maybe, someone else discovers us.

[Cowperson]

Originally posted by Kidder+Aug 26 2004, 10:19 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Kidder @ Aug 26 2004, 10:19 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

I was thinking the same thing.

Its only a matter of time, in our lifetimes certainly, before someone discovers a world like ours. My prediction.

Cowperson

Or maybe, someone else discovers us. [/b][/quote]
Or maybe they have already . . . . . and maybe they're on their way.. . . . or maybe they're already here.

Cowperson

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally posted by Cowperson+Aug 26 2004, 04:39 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Cowperson @ Aug 26 2004, 04:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Or maybe, someone else discovers us.

Or maybe they have already . . . . . and maybe they're on their way.. . . . or maybe they're already here.

Cowperson [/b][/quote]
No way man. They'd be way, waay to busy having birthday parties to develop any technology better than ours.

[CaptainCrunch]

"I'm going to ram my pseudo pod down your throat and lay eggs in your chest but I'm not an alien"

mystery sciencefiction threatre 3000 the movie

[Daradon]

Originally posted by Cowperson@Aug 26 2004, 09:12 PM
If I'm not mistaken, only gas giants, probably unhabitable, have been discovered so far. If this is a rocky planet, it would probably be the first ever announced.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/08/...anet/index.html

Cowperson

First rocky planet discoverer outside our solar system...

Funny how they say it's earth like but it's 14 times larger, is way hotter, and only has a three day year... But I know what they are getting at. Mars howver would still be far the most 'earth-like'.

As for the alien thing, I was thinking about the sheer math of that for a long time and it's virtually impossible when it comes to distances. Not saying they aren't out there and there is no other life in the universe, because I'm sure there has to be with that much space, that any stars. I just think the odds of us crossing paths are pretty much nil. To make exploration possible they would have HAD to be able to cross space faster than the flow of time (IE some sort of 'wormhole' as Sci-fi has coined). If they were succesful at that, I would hardly believe they would care about us.

If you could cross space like that, it's possible you would have answered all the fundamental philosophical questions. How did we get here? How did it all start? Etc. Talking to us would be like talking to ants. There might be so many physiological differences in fact it might be impossible. They might be beings of energy, or emotion. A collective consciousness of course.

Of course, if they were a collective consciousness, maybe we're a part of them already, and vice versa...

Things I think about...

[photon]

Another interesting thing is with fiber optics, cable TV, and other things, I think I read that the actual amount of EM radiation leaving the earth has decreased steadily the last while.. Eventually with that quantum stuff maybe within 50 years we won't have hardly any radio waves leaving our planet..

We're searching the skies for an artifical EMR signal, but mabe the timeframe in which a species uses that for communication is usually very short (like 150 years). That reduces even further the likelyhood we'd detect anyone.

I posted these links in the other forum, I'll repost them here. They're about Fermi's Paradox (If there's alien life, why aren't they here yet?), some interesting reading.

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/..._society/92193
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/..._society/92196
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/..._society/92198
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/..._society/92199

[Cowperson]

Originally posted by Daradon+Aug 26 2004, 11:51 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Daradon @ Aug 26 2004, 11:51 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Cowperson@Aug 26 2004, 09:12 PM
If I'm not mistaken, only gas giants, probably unhabitable, have been discovered so far. If this is a rocky planet, it would probably be the first ever announced.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/08/...anet/index.html

Cowperson

First rocky planet discoverer outside our solar system...

Funny how they say it's earth like but it's 14 times larger, is way hotter, and only has a three day year... But I know what they are getting at. Mars howver would still be far the most 'earth-like'.

As for the alien thing, I was thinking about the sheer math of that for a long time and it's virtually impossible when it comes to distances. Not saying they aren't out there and there is no other life in the universe, because I'm sure there has to be with that much space, that any stars. I just think the odds of us crossing paths are pretty much nil. To make exploration possible they would have HAD to be able to cross space faster than the flow of time (IE some sort of 'wormhole' as Sci-fi has coined). If they were succesful at that, I would hardly believe they would care about us.

If you could cross space like that, it's possible you would have answered all the fundamental philosophical questions. How did we get here? How did it all start? Etc. Talking to us would be like talking to ants. There might be so many physiological differences in fact it might be impossible. They might be beings of energy, or emotion. A collective consciousness of course.

Of course, if they were a collective consciousness, maybe we're a part of them already, and vice versa...

Things I think about... [/b][/quote]
A great science fiction short story I read a few years ago had a rocket leaving earth with frozen human embryos and a life support system, coasting through the stars for millennia before finding a suitable planet to land. Then the machinery coming to life and incubating the embryos to birth. The story ends there but the implication was the machine would raise these embryos and educate them as well.

Cowperson

[Daradon]

Cow,

I think we read the same type of books. Or some of them.

Any (mortal) exploration would have to be populated by robots (or their tech kin) because of the sheer distance. I agree with that. But even to get the signal back, you'd have to add the time back. By then the original research scientists are dead. You would have to have families or organzations devoted to this over centuries/millineia.

If you want a series good for the tech abut this, sending messages the speed of light try the 'Gap' series by Stephen Donaldson.

Even in his book, the aliens developed an ingenious way of instant sub space communication, to bypass the humans that could send messages at just under the speed of light.

They grew two atoms exactly alike, so when on stimulus was presented on one atom, the other would react exactly at the exact time.

Interesting theory. The 'twins theory' on a intergalatic level.