Monday, June 13, 2005

Astronomers find most Earth-like planet yet

"The world's preeminent planet hunters have discovered the most Earth-like extrasolar planet yet: a possibly rocky world about 7.5 times as massive as the Earth. This hot 'super-Earth,' just 15 light years away, travels in a nearly circular orbit only 2 million miles from its parent star, Gliese 876, and has a radius about twice that of Earth."
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6 comments:

TheUltimateCyn said...

I am so confused. Do we want another Earth like planet in order to have somewhere to go to when we're done screwing this one up, or are we hoping to find life out there, life like us... not some micro life, but you know a "human like" being?
From what I can tell - our government has spent so much time covering the idea that there are E.T.'s, how would we ever get them to admit they had found other real "life" on another Earth like planet??

3:20 PM
Mac said...

Discovering an Earth-like planet and discovering what sort of life it may have --if any -- are two entirely different issues. It's within our ability to detect atmospheric "biomarkers," but even then we wouldn't know who or what was responsible until we actually *went* there -- and that's a huge (although not impossible) undertaking.

3:24 PM
Mac said...

For that matter, do we have a "right" to terraform Mars? My first reaction is "yes." But what if there's an ecosphere there? We could ruin something truly precious.

11:27 PM
TheUltimateCyn said...

We don't care about that - just give us land... that's my opinion anyway. Why would we care about destroying something precious when we do it everyday here...?

4:41 AM
razorsmile said...

Mac said :
For that matter, do we have a "right" to terraform Mars? My first reaction is "yes." But what if there's an ecosphere there? We could ruin something truly precious.

I prefer the idea of areoforming our selves. Can't alter the body without altering the mind - hopefully for the better.

2:13 PM
razorsmile said...

What better shortcut to understanding (and being understood by) aliens than to become them?

2:16 PM

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