Newly found planets make case for 'crowded universe' (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- European astronomers have found a trio of "super-Earths" closely circling a star that astronomers once figured had nothing orbiting it.

The discovery demonstrates that planets keep popping up in unexpected places around the universe.

The announcement is the first time three planets close to Earth's size were found orbiting a single star, said Swiss astronomer Didier Queloz.

He was part of the Swiss-French team using the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in the desert in Chile.

The mass of the smallest of the super-Earths is about four times the size of Earth.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/06/17/super.earths.ap/index.html

[darkmaestro019]

1. It never ceases to amaze me--and gently amuse me

that we still don't get the whole absence of evidence not being evidence of absence.

Yet there are still people squawking that these planets are too non-Earthlike to support life, even after what we've found in the most toxic or harsh conditions HERE, life that flourishes on what would poison us.


How I wish we were at a stage to have actual exobiologists. (sigh) (is impatient)

[Kutjara]

2. I think one thing is becoming uncomfortably hard to ignore:

The universe is full of intelligent life. And all of it is avoiding us.

[RC]

3. Maybe because they know there is no intelligent life here?

The truth may hurt, but someone had to say it.

[Kutjara]

4. What really burns is that we don't even seem to be...

...a popular tourist destination for aliens (unless you count Kansas cornfields). I guess there's better scenery, beaches, and nightlife elsewhere.

[RC]

5. I think it may be all those varmints in those SUV's scarein' them off.

[Indenturedebtor]

8. Yes but we do seem to have anuses that are the most fun to probe

If you'll recall from Nixblarbles "Planets to visit, Nebulae to see - Edition 1,429,774" the Great Cartographer emphatically states that any Mugmug worth his mocktar would be a fleexleflibble if heshe didn't stop by StupidWorld on the way to Glaxon IV to explore the "Majestic Browneyes of the Fundys".

That's the only mention of Earth that I know of anyways...

[Kutjara]

9. Ah yes. I'd forgotten that reference.

But wasn't there also some mention of us in the "Warnings & Cautions" chapter? Something about not engaging the indigenes in conversation, unless you want your threeblesquark to shoot right off the top of your pflooze? I'm paraphrasing, of course.

[Indenturedebtor]

12. That may have been in another edition :P n/t

[semillama]

6. What is even more uncomfortable

The universe probably is full of intelligent life. What is unsettling, no other intelligent life forms have developed technology that we can detect (radio waves, etc). This has some pretty big implications for the future of our species.

[Indenturedebtor]

7. Maybe they moved on to better forms of communication? n/t

[semillama]

11. The problem with that is with the vastness of space

we should still be able to pick up some traces of earlier communications. So far, zilcho in terms of scientifically verifiable evidence.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. Only if you're looking in the right way, in the right direction, at the right time

[Phoonzang]

14. Lack of signals doesn't really mean much

With current SETI capabilities, our chances of receiving a signal are pretty low. For one they'd need to know we were here and would need to be broadcasting a signal directly at us. Then we'd need to be looking in the right place at the right time to intercept that signal. We can't really detect leakage (TV and radio) from other planets now. We would be able to detect radar beams, but once again we'd need to be looking it the right direction at the right time. Seth Shostak (head of SETI) likened it to two hunters shooting in the woods and having their bullets collide. So I wouldn't let the lack of signals convince you that we're alone in the neighborhood!

[Occulus]

10. Gamma ray bursters sending them all back to the pond too quickly, perhaps?

:D