I am so fascinated with Astronomy. This is an amazing story.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060125_smallest_planet.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060125_smallest_planet.html
A step closer to finding another Earth-like planet
- Thread starter Bigshadow
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Thanks for the link! That is great reading material!arnisador said:
I hope I live long enough to see the day they DO find a planet like earth. It will be amazing to see how fast they can develop either propulsion system or some other system that would make travel to such a distant planet feasible in a short amount of time. Once a planet like that is found I believe there will an unprecedented race to get there, possibly fueled by the money of those greedy enough to want to exploit. Of course for the fascinating part would be what kind of technology will be developed.
Of course, I am a little surprised that some greedy/wealthy corporation hasn't developed a way to send devices to Mercury to harvest the gold and platinum that Scientists believe accounts for a great deal of Mercury's composition.
Bigshadow said:
LOL. They probably are!
Nice article. Thank you. I enjoy Astronomy also. Unfortunately, having grown up in the Carl Sagan years left me a bit sceptical about what I read though.
-365 degrees is a bit chilly though. I thought Minnesota was cold!
On the other hand, with 5 times the Earth's mass, there would probably be enough room to finally get rid of my mother-in-law. 
Thanks for the link. I had hard about the find but had not seen the article befor.
Sapper6
3rd Black Belt
i never would have guessed there were so many astro-nerds on MT.
it is pretty cool stuff, eh? glad to see that others enjoy this kind of news. this is the important stuff. not the other **** you see on CNN and FoxNews.
it is pretty cool stuff, eh? glad to see that others enjoy this kind of news. this is the important stuff. not the other **** you see on CNN and FoxNews.
jdinca
Master Black Belt
Sapper6 said:
What I'm noticing is that MT is full of intelligent, clear thinking people, whether we agree with each other or not.
Sapper6 said:
"Lets get those Nerds!!!"
"Nerds!!!"
*speaking in a nasal voice*
The fascinating thing about this article is the impact that it has on the field of astrobiology. In our solar system, we already have a number of celestial bodies that qualify as candidates for extraterestrail life. We are only (literally) a step away from discovering life on Mars!
This is profound.
If life is so common in our solar system, then it is reasonable to assume that life is common in other solar systems. Further, according to the article, small rocky worlds are far more common then scientists once thought. Putting these together, we literally could have a galaxy (a universe) that is teeming with life.
If this is the case, one has to ask, why hasn't the Earth had clear and unrecognizable proof that intelligent extraterrestrial life exists?
I think the answer lies in our solar system's place in the galaxy. We are located a long distance out on one of the spiral arms and there are very few stars that are near to us. In fact, one of the reasons the sky is predominated by black is because we are so isolated. (If we were closer to other stars, there would be more photons zinging around to brighten things up at night a bit)
I tend to think of the Earth as the Easter Island of the Milky Way. We are way out in the sea, cut off from all extrasolar influences. Only the most advance transportation systems or a rash and desperate act could get out this far to find us. Our First Contact could come in a million years and they might just find a bunch of toppled monuments amidst an island that was laid to waste...
upnorthkyosa
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Yes it is! I have been following the rovers' stories from the time they launched until now. It is absolutely amazing the images that were sent back from Mars. I couldn't tell you how many times I looked at those pictures, zooming in and checking out the rocks. I am very hopeful they will find evidence that life existed and may in fact still exist on Mars.upnorthkyosa said:
What really amazes me is that the scientists totally underestimated the life of the batteries. I expect that the environment on Mars was not nearly as harsh as they expected. But that is my opinion.
I am convinced there is life out there somewhere. We have only scratched the surface in space exploration. If life exists here, it MUST exist elsewhere. We cannot possibly be alone.upnorthkyosa said:
VERY thought provoking! That is very interesting perspective. Thanks!upnorthkyosa said:
OP
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- #10
Sapper6 said:
Deception is part of my training... :rofl:
Now this is where I start getting tongue-n-cheek. We have seen illistrations of what we believe our galaxy looks like, but no one has claimed to have documented every star in our galaxy. (Didn't they just recently find a cluster of super giants in the middle of our galaxy? They didn't just get there.) So much theory, so little fact, yet always projected as fact. Just like the most recent theory I heard that a black hole now must exist at the center of every galaxy and is in fact, the core of what every galaxy is centered around. I'm not saying that many of the theories are not well founded, but why can't they ever just start a sentence with "We believe"? It's always presented as fact. Right up until they disprove one of their theories, which they have on many occasions. Then it's always "as previously thought". I really am fascinated with this, but they're lack of defining what they know from what they think hurts their credibility in my eyes.
Bigshadow said:
I so totally agree! Life has to exist somewhere else as well, we just can't possibly be the only ones out here. What saddens me is I probably won't live to see it discovered. I think it will really shake up the human race when it happens.
OP
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- #13
Yes, true! That reminds me, they recently discovered a system that has 3 suns. This topples many theories about how systems are formed. Basically the planets have 3 suns. It defies much of what Scientists knew (or thought they knew) about gravity and formation of planets. LOLGemini said:
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8344
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Besides the human species, just imagine what will happen to the foundations of religion. :O I too am disappointed that I probably won't be around to see it.Lisa said:
What an amazing time that will be!Besides the human species, just imagine what will happen to the foundations of religion. :O I too am disappointed that I probably won't be around to see it.
I would be interested to see what religions, if any, another species would have.
Imagine how much it would shake up the foundations of religion if both humans and the other species's main religions were near identical.
Bigshadow said:
That is actually an overstatement, we haven't even left our porch yet...once we step onto the front lawn, then we can start talking about actually exploring.
Bigshadow said:
I don't really think there's any basis for this argument, however. There's no reason life has to exist elsewhere. Minus religion, there's no reason we should exist either.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #17
True!bignick said:
more like we have just scratched the surface of the porch LOL Well maybe a small scuff mark. Likewise, there is no basis for the arguement that there is no life. To prove either one, we have to know far more than we do. I tend to be an optimist. Truthfully, there are no hard facts, the basis is pure numbers of probability and the fact that the elements that created life exists here, they certainly can exist elsewhere. Think about the massive universe and all the galaxies that exist there and how many yet to be discovered. It is highly improbable that our TINY planet is the only one that has formed that can and does support life.bignick said:
Even more perplexing is that the universe seems infinite. Infinite is something that is hard to think about. Our very existence is built upon the concept of beginning and end. How can something that is infinite be made of things that begin and end? Maybe this is another geeky thread
michaeledward
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For those interested, a new 45 minute documentary has been released about the Spirit and Opportunity missions.
Currently, in limited release on IMAX theaters.
www.rovingmars.com
Currently, in limited release on IMAX theaters.
www.rovingmars.com
heretic888
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This is somewhat off-topic, but it needs to be addressed....
Actually, no it's not.
There are very specific terms and standards used in science. Likewise, studies in peer-reviewed forums are structured in very specific ways. I have yet to read a single peer-reviewed article that uses language like, "therefore this proves X theory to be unquestionably factual". Rather, the language more commonly sounds like, "evidence from this study suggests that X theory is the more plausible explanation" or "the data of this study indicates X theory to be supported".
It sounds to me like you're not actually getting your information from professional sources (i.e., textbooks, academic journals, and conferences). More than likely, it was most probably summarizations give by non-experts in secondary sources.
And, for what it's worth, when I was taught science in public school it was always put in terms of "this is the best explanation we currently have given all the available data". That science is self-correcting is something you learn on your very first day.
Laterz.
Gemini said:
Actually, no it's not.
There are very specific terms and standards used in science. Likewise, studies in peer-reviewed forums are structured in very specific ways. I have yet to read a single peer-reviewed article that uses language like, "therefore this proves X theory to be unquestionably factual". Rather, the language more commonly sounds like, "evidence from this study suggests that X theory is the more plausible explanation" or "the data of this study indicates X theory to be supported".
It sounds to me like you're not actually getting your information from professional sources (i.e., textbooks, academic journals, and conferences). More than likely, it was most probably summarizations give by non-experts in secondary sources.
And, for what it's worth, when I was taught science in public school it was always put in terms of "this is the best explanation we currently have given all the available data". That science is self-correcting is something you learn on your very first day.
Laterz.
dobermann
Yellow Belt
very interesting!
i just asked the question about alien life forms on another forum. its funny how a lot of people are scared of possible alien life forms. first, they are always considedered to be intelligent. second is that they are gonna overtake the planet. because that is just what we humans would do.
roughly our universe is about 15 billion years old. so, when our planet had to take his time to evolve to where we are now, maybe others are still living up on trees and in caves. or they were just a bit further as us and have exploited their own planet and life is no more possible. there are a lot of scenarios you can think of as there are billions of stars, planets, our universe might not even be the only one. given the fact that our reality very probably has another dimension which no one is aware of, maybe there is just as many, so alien life form becomes almost a necessity. but thats just my .02!
i just asked the question about alien life forms on another forum. its funny how a lot of people are scared of possible alien life forms. first, they are always considedered to be intelligent. second is that they are gonna overtake the planet. because that is just what we humans would do.
roughly our universe is about 15 billion years old. so, when our planet had to take his time to evolve to where we are now, maybe others are still living up on trees and in caves. or they were just a bit further as us and have exploited their own planet and life is no more possible. there are a lot of scenarios you can think of as there are billions of stars, planets, our universe might not even be the only one. given the fact that our reality very probably has another dimension which no one is aware of, maybe there is just as many, so alien life form becomes almost a necessity. but thats just my .02!
