NYT: Astronomers Briefly Glimpse an Earthlike Planet

[DeepModem Mom]

Astronomers Briefly Glimpse an Earthlike Planet
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: January 25, 2006


....Astronomers said today that, by virtue of the ceaseless shifting of the billions of stars in the Milky Way and a trick of Einsteinian physics, they had briefly glimpsed the most Earthlike planet yet to be discovered outside the solar system. It is a ball of rock and ice only about 5.5 times as massive as the Earth, orbiting a dim reddish star 21,000 light years from here.

The discovery, they said, suggests that rock-ice planets like our own are predominant in the cosmos. That bodes well for future planet hunting missions from space like NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finders.

The distant planet manifested itself as a brief flash as it passed in the night in front of an even more distant star, and the planet's gravity focused and momentarily brightened the light from the even more distant star. It was all over in less than a day, a cosmic eye blink.

"It was the blip in the night that we have been waiting for," said Jean-Philippe Beaulieu of the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, who led a collaboration of 73 astronomers from a variety of countries and institutions. Before reporting their findings in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, they talked about them at a news conference today in Washington....

***

The new planet, dubbed OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, is smaller than Neptune and resides about 234 million miles from its star, about the distance of the asteroid belt in our own solar system. At that distance its surface temperature would be a cool — 370 degrees Fahrenheit, Dr. Beaulieu said....


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/science/space/25cnd-planet.html?hp&ex=1138251600&en=e0b4d4ef4a3063e9&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[havocmom]

1. Did they see any job openings there?

[atommom]

2. And do they have neocons there yet?

[vicman]

7. Sorry

outsourcing contractors are already on their way there

[Peace Patriot]

9. Har, har, har, Havocmom! LOL!

This IS news, though--and very exciting. Not along ago, scientists were all pooh-poohing the chances for any other life at all--let alone intelligent life--elsewhere in the universe, because they said the conditions that created earth, and our planets and solar system, seemed to be extremely rare. Then, just a few years ago, they started discovering planets all over the place--the ones they could see were the big gaseous ones, but even these greatly increased the odds for life elsewhere. Now, with the discovery of another earthlike planet, so far away, I imagine the odds have changed astonomically in favor of life--and intelligence--in other places.

I've always thought that the numbers are so unimaginably big--the number of stars in our galaxy, and the number of galaxies (staggering numbers--and that's just what our instrument can detect)--and also the way that life happened here, with nature creating a huge variety of species, in wild proliferation in the earliest eras (only some of which survived certain global catastrophes), that there really HAD to be life elsewhere. But scientists really played it down, I guess not wanting to be considered fanciful.

I am thrilled by this discovery of an earth-like planet. I have SETI as my screensaver, hoping for first contact. Do you?

[hyphenate]

31. That would be a first--

"I imagine the odds have changed astonomically in favor of life--and intelligence--in other places."

Because there really isn't much intelligent life here on planet Earth. :)

[CrackpotAmerica]

17. Insert Coffee Spit On Monitor Comment Here!

:rofl:

[wordpix2]

19. LOL, good one, thanks

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Nice use of gravitational lensing

Einstein would have been proud.

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

26. I love science, me!

And just think of the odds of a suitably massive object being in the path of photons coming from something interesting... and to have someone observing that tiny part of the cosmos at the time.

/Isn't the universe wonderful?
//Don't need no 'tellgent DEEsign.

[Ian David]

4. Rock and ice... WATER ice?

21,0000 Light Years away. At that distance, news of the end of Bush's second term will reach it in a little under 20,997 years.

[KansDem]

6. On the flip side...

News of the stolen election of 2000 and the beginning of the Bush Junta hasn't yet reached there and won't for another 20,9995 years!

Ignorance is bliss!

[Robb]

5. If it has rocks, it must have oil

Prepare an invasionary force! :D

[DELUSIONAL]

8. don't tell bushie -- he might want to attack

[byronius]

10. Space is Just a Theory.

Don't be spreading your "science" mumbo-jumbo around here. My cell phone works because God makes it work. That's all we need to know.

[Borgnine]

11. Satan has placed that planet there to test our faith.

Don't buy into it! There's only one Earth-like planet out there, and that's Earth! I like my Earths like I like my December holidays... only one! I won't tolerate people saying "happy Chanakuchahaha," and I won't tolerate this 'War on Earth' either!

[slackmaster]

12. Mmmmmmmm - Rocks - Ice - mmmmmmmmmm

Time for a margarita.

[ismnotwasm]

13. Cool

OGLE-2005-BLG-390LB? Can we call it ogle for short? Or planet oggie?
Seriously, I always find news like this very exciting. Thanks for posting!

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Me, too! You're welcome. nt

[MisterP]

16. there's too many OGLE planets for that:

www.extrasolar.net

[henslee]

14. It's a klingon trap.

[Pithy Cherub]

20. and bush, the Ferengi, thinks he's Captain Picard...

[Moochy]

28. Agreed

It's a trap!

[superconnected]

18. I figure the galaxy has planets like earth, because, earth came

about in it. It always shocks me when people don't believe such a thing could happen.

thanks for sharing.

I hope the ID people get very pissed off :). Especially the ones in Virgina who are going to bed thinking they're winning the "sancity of marriage".

Now they get to know they are losing the Universe. :)

[Carni]

21. How the hell do I get there?

It can't be any worse than what I am dealing with...

[hayu_lol]

22. Cami...don't forget to take a very long...

extension cord. You may neat heat once in a while.

[Carni]

23. Hey it can't be much colder than my house is this winter eom

[Senator Lamb]

24. Krypton?

[burrowowl]

25. Wow!

And wouldn't it be nice if Humankind could provide food and education for all so that many more fascinating discoveries could be made of Earth and the Universe, instead of funneling talent into war!

[MagickMuffin]

27. There's a reason Bushitler,

didn't want to fund Hubble, it might give proof "That we are not Alone" :eyes:

I'm planning my future vacation, "Beam me up Scotty!"

http://hubblesite.org/

[anitar1]

29. Anyone have a bus schedule handy ? n/t

[baby_mouse]

30. Is there any oil? nt

[hyphenate]

32. That solar system would be fairly close to us, which means

it is likely that it is nearer to the outer part of the spiral that is the Milky Way. It might actually have already contained species, and might be further along in the evolutionary line than we are.

As you go closer to the center of the galaxy, the stars become denser and closer together. This could possibly suggest, too, that many star systems might have evolved over time--the older the star, the older the intelligent life could be. And this works in reverse, too--many newer stars would likely contain the enzymes that will eventually turn into life of some kind.

As Carl Sagan once said, "billions and billions" of stars. We know we're not alone and as to why we haven't been "visited" by extraterrestrials, I think we already have, but they would have likely tried to remain inconspicuous, or they might merely have been observing us to see when we blew up our small corner of the galaxy. I don't think I would want to visit Earth right now in our development, as we would most likely declare all aliens as hostile and try to blow them up instead of making friendly.

If conditions on another planet were to produce intelligent life, there is a good chance that there might be a hominid species eventually, even though they would not likely speak the same language. (j/k!) Perhaps, for example, on another planet, that a whole other species rose up, say, from an ancient form of cat, or dog, or reptilian. SF writers have been speculating about this topic for centuries, and finding an M Class planet not too far from us sure does make the possibility a lot more probable. :)