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  1. #1
    C.I.A. AntitaniC's Avatar
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    Default Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet


    HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.

    "The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.

    An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet "extraordinary."

    Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.

    Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a "good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets."

    Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said.

    He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the University of Hertfordshire during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.

    Gliese 581 d is probably too large to be made only of rocky material, fellow astronomer and team member Stephane Udry said, adding it was possible the planet had a "large and deep" ocean.

    "It is the first serious 'water-world' candidate," Udry said.

    Mayor's main planet-hunting competitor, Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, praised the find of Gliese 581 e as "the most exciting discovery" so far of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system.

    "This discovery is absolutely extraordinary," Marcy told The Associated Press by e-mail, calling the discoveries a significant step in the search for Earth-like planets.

    While Gliese 581 e is too hot for life "it shows that nature makes such small planets, probably in large numbers," Marcy commented. "Surely the galaxy contains tens of billions of planets like the small, Earth-mass one announced here."

    Nearly 350 planets have been found outside our solar system, but so far nearly every one of them was found to be extremely unlikely to harbor life.

    Most were too close or too far from their sun, making them too hot or too cold for life. Others were too big and likely to be uninhabitable gas giants like Jupiter. Those that are too small are highly difficult to detect in the first place.

    Both Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 e are located in constellation Libra and orbit around Gliese 581.

    Like other planets circling that star — scientists have discovered four so far — Gliese 581 e was found using the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile.

    The telescope has a special instrument which splits light to find wobbles in different wavelengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

    "It is great work and shows the potential of this detection method," said Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090421/...ain_new_planet

  2. #2
    C.I.A. rodsky's Avatar
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    They can only mark that as a partial result, because until now, all observation is totally indirect, using the transit or RV methods (both rely on "wobble detection" techniques, which is still a lot of guesswork).

    Methods of detecting extrasolar planets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    So actual size cannot be accurately measured until Kepler points at it, or the James Webb Space Telescope gets into operation (June 2013).

    Kepler Mission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    James Webb Space Telescope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    -RODION
    Last edited by rodsky; 04-22-2009 at 12:15 PM.

  3. #3
    kalayo pud ana uy 22 1/2 lightyears away hehehe...

  4. #4
    C.I.A. rodsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by doydi View Post
    kalayo pud ana uy 22 1/2 lightyears away hehehe...
    22 lightyears is about 2.081360704e+14 kilometers, or 208,136,070,400,000 kilometers

    The highest speed we humans have achieved is the speed of the Helios Spacecraft... "The maximum speed of Helios 2, which achieved its perihelion distance of 0.29 AU on 17 April 1976, is quoted as about 150,000 mph (241,350 km/h)" Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Aircraft Speed Records

    Thus, if we can launch a spacecraft with the speed of Helios...we will reach the proximity of Glise in about 100,000 years. So yes, it's quite far...

    However, you're forgetting about getting close to the speed of light, and the Special Theory of Relativity.

    With time dilation brought about by STR by travelling about 99% the Speed of Light, instead of waiting for 100,000 years, the trip could only take about a week or two (very rough estimate).

    If only human beings concentrate on developing NLS (near light speed travel), we would be scampering about the known universe na unta.

    -RODION

  5. #5
    C.I.A. AntitaniC's Avatar
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    relax lang moh... mo abot ra lagi ta anang speed of light.... as long as the sun there buhi pa lagi tah...

    mamalhin na nya ta nig atong technology parehas nas transformers... lol

  6. #6
    Mosimang kio ha.. May pa si Son Gokou makateleport pa sa laing planeta in just a split second. ehehe

  7. #7
    C.I.A. rodsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AntitaniC View Post
    relax lang moh... mo abot ra lagi ta anang speed of light.... as long as the sun there buhi pa lagi tah...

    mamalhin na nya ta nig atong technology parehas nas transformers... lol
    You must mean NLS (Near Light Speed). Achieving a speed equivalent that of the speed of light is scientifically impossible.

    -RODION

  8. #8
    C.I.A. cliff_drew's Avatar
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    Is this the planet X?

  9. #9
    C.I.A. rodsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cliff_drew View Post
    Is this the planet X?
    If you mean Sitchin's Planet X, no.

    Astronomical objects proposed in religion, astrology and ufology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    This thread is a discussion on science fact, not fiction. Astronomical objects proposed in religion, astrology and ufology are not in the realm of proper astronomical studies.

    -RODION

  10. #10
    Sa pagkakaron impossible kaayo ang speed of light. Another alternative right now is deep freeze or hibernation. Second, is kanang i-bend nimo ang space between two-points(i.e. Event Horizon movie).

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