NASA Locates Several Earth Sized Planets

[SmileOfTheShadow]

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/25/nasas-deep-space-camera-locates-host-earths/?test=latestnews

Just thought people might be interested. 100 million habitable planets in our galaxy! Yikes! I am of the Stephen Hawking mentality that it's probably best to stay away from possible aliens.

[Doom Shepherd]

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...est=latestnews

Just thought people might be interested. 100 million habitable planets in our galaxy! Yikes! I am of the Stephen Hawking mentality that it's probably best to stay away from possible aliens.

Yeah, I watch space news pretty closely, and I'm gonna assume that at least some of that article is wrong, because I haven't heard it anywhere on my space science sites.

The 700 candidate planets number is correct. Most of them will be hot, because Kepler really hasn't been looking for long enough to confirm orbits as long as the Earth's... It's more likely, when taking a short glance, to stumble across planets with shorter transit times, like those that whip around their star in a few hours or days.

A few Earth-sized planets in the right orbit may have been transiting during this small window just by chance, but I don't think even optimists expected to find 140 of them so quickly.

We'll see. This is one of the few cases in which I HOPE I'm wrong.

Also, while humanity may not be ready to meet an alien, I am. I think Hawking is mistaken about his "Independence Day" type marauding aliens. It would be easier by far to snag asteroids and comets for raw materials than to have to haul stuff up out of a steep gravity well like Earth's.

[JoeD80]

All they've actually found at this point are planet candidates. They won't know until they've done further tests if they are planets or not, but there are certainly quite a number of possibilities. It's possible that they are looking at a number of binary stars as well.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

Also, while humanity may not be ready to meet an alien, I am. I think Hawking is mistaken about his "Independence Day" type marauding aliens. It would be easier by far to snag asteroids and comets for raw materials than to have to haul stuff up out of a steep gravity well like Earth's.

I saw a documentary recently with Prof. Hawking outlining his opinions on aliens and the like, and I came away with the feeling that what he really means is that in order to reach our little rock at all, the aliens would have to be so far ahead of us in terms of their civilisation and their technology that they would likely just look at us as if we were ants scurrying around under their feet, and could just walk in, do (or take) whatever they wanted or needed and walk away without even really noticing that we were there.

Much like those ancient aliens in some SF show or other.

[I love Lyta]

... in order to reach our little rock at all, the aliens would have to be so far ahead of us in terms of their civilisation and their technology ...

Not nescessarily. Sometimes technological advancement is just boiling down to having the right idea at the right time.

...they would likely just look at us as if we were ants scurrying around under their feet, and could just walk in, do (or take) whatever they wanted or needed and walk away without even really noticing that we were there.

That might very well be. Indeed...

The big problem is that most people expect aliens who would be able to reach our planet to be hostile because they think those aliens would feel superior when they see how limited our race still is.
Those people however are either to limited in their imagination to see -or just forgetting- that not every technologically advanced intelligent race needs to be such a greedy, murderous and selfish bunch as mankind is.

[Triple F]

But what drives that ôgreedy murderous and selfishö behaviour in humanity, what is the advantages. Many other species on this planet exhibit the same characteristics, though itÆs normally put under the general banner of ôcompetitionö.

IsnÆt it also those very same attributes (or at least two of them) which were among the main driving force behind the discovery, and subsequent exploration of, America for example. And the third is just the inevitable by-product of the other two.

I have no idea what an alien would be like, or what itÆs motivations behind itÆs exploration of space would be. But itÆs a fair bet theyÆd be the dominant life form on their own planet, and you donÆt get to become that by not being, as you choose to describe it, greedy, murderous and selfish. ThereÆs other factors behind evolution of course, but those are a fairly big part of it as well.

[nottenst]

Articles about the clarifications of the findings:

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/confusion-over-keplers-earth-like-planets.html

"Kepler cannot tell whether [a candidate exoplanet] is Earth-like or not," notes Borucki. The orbiting telescope determines only an exoplanet's size and, given more observing time, the distance from its star. " 'Earth-like' is a term common among astrophysicists," Borucki adds, "but it's not appropriate for the public."

Also see

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/science/space/03kepler.html?_r=1

[Thackeray61]

Our technology has really reach the best innovation especially in astro physics I never thought that there are so many planets out there hope they can discover more planets to view.

[David Panzer]

I have no idea what an alien would be like, or what it’s motivations behind it’s exploration of space would be. But it’s a fair bet they’d be the dominant life form on their own planet, and you don’t get to become that by not being, as you choose to describe it, greedy, murderous and selfish. There’s other factors behind evolution of course, but those are a fairly big part of it as well.

If the aliens (if they do exist) are on the same level as us. I think they would be on the same level as First Ones, Galactus, or Great Old Ones. We've only been around for 200,000 years. We're still in our diapers. An alien race that can travel throughout the galaxy as easily as we can travel on our planet, has long since left their diapers behind. It is highly arrogant to think that what motivates us, motivates them.

[Dan Dassow]

This seems apropos: http://xkcd.com/786/

[Jonas]

IsnÆt it also those very same attributes (or at least two of them) which were among the main driving force behind the discovery, and subsequent exploration of, America for example.

Actually, America was discovered, explored and colonized by the human species long before Europeans got there and destroyed the fruits of that process by their greed and selfishness.

[babylonlurker]

Actually, America was discovered, explored and colonized by the human species long before Europeans got there and destroyed the fruits of that process by their greed and selfishness.

Oh ! you mean that the Vikings destroyed it when they arrived in the 8th or 9th Century ?

Maybe they did ...

- or the Vikings were not European ?