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NASA Locates Several Earth Sized Planets
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Originally posted by SmileOfTheShadow View Posthttp://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.
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."It's hard being an evil genius when everybody else is so stupid." -- Quantum Crook, Casey and Andy Webcomic
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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.Last edited by JoeD80; 07-26-2010, 11:56 AM.
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Originally posted by Doom Shepherd View PostAlso, 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.
Much like those ancient aliens in some SF show or other.The Optimist: The glass is half full
The Pessimist: The glass is half empty
The Engineer: The glass is twice as big as it needs to be
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... 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 ...
...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.
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.Last edited by I love Lyta; 08-06-2010, 01:48 AM.What's up Drakh?
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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.
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Articles about the clarifications of the findings:
"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."
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Originally posted by Triple F View PostI 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.Last edited by David Panzer; 08-10-2010, 08:29 PM.RIP Coach Larry Finch
Thank you Memphis Grizzlies for a great season.
Play like your fake girlfriend died today - new Notre Dame motivational sign
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Originally posted by Triple F View PostIsnÆt 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.
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Originally posted by Jonas View PostActually, 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.
Maybe they did ...
- or the Vikings were not European ?
Jan from Denmark
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http://www.babylonlurker.dk
"Our thoughts form the Universe - they *always* matter"
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