16 'super-Earths' found outside solar system

[Babygirl-]

16 'super-Earths' found outside solar system

It's not like aliens put up a welcome banner or anything, but scientists now have newly identified at least one planet that could potentially sustain life.

The European Southern Observatory has just announced the discovery of more than 50 new exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), including 16 super-Earths (planets whose mass is between one and 10 times that of our own planet).

One of these planets in particular could theoretically be home to life if conditions are right. It's called HD 85512 b, and scientists say it's about 3.6 times the mass of the Earth. This planet is about 35 light years from Earth. Its location with respect to its star suggests that this planet could have liquid water under certain circumstances.

Don't get too excited, though; there's a lot more work to be done to explore whether this planet is truly fit for life, in addition to whether there are alien life forms there.

The discovery comes from High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS. HARPS is located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, and is part of a telescope that's nearly 12 feet long.

Here's how it works, according to ESO: When a planet orbits a star, the star move towards and away from the person who's stargazing on Earth in a regular fashion. That's called a change in radial velocity. Because of the Doppler effect, changes in radial velocity makes the star's light spectrum move towards longer wavelengths when it's moving away, and towards shorter wavelengths as it gets closer. HARPS can detect this shift in the spectrum, and infer that there is a planet present.

So far, scientists have confirmed the existence of 564 planets outside of our solar system, according to NASA's PlanetQuest website, not counting this latest batch of more than 50. Beyond that, NASA's Kepler mission has found more than 1,200 exoplanet candidates.

"In the coming 10 to 20 years we should have the first list of potentially habitable planets in the Sun's neighbourhood. Making such a list is essential before future experiments can search for possible spectroscopic signatures of life in the exoplanet atmospheres," said Michel Mayor, who led the HARPS team, in a statement.

[Chinaman]

[AhlulbaytSoldier]

There is no doubt that in one these planets some sort of life exist.

[Cinque Mtume]

HD is not 35 but 36 lightyears away from Earth and is in the Vela constellation, but it has become big news because it has surpassed the other extrasolar planet called Gliese which was discovered a few years ago and is located 20 lightyears away from Earth, as the most habitable candidate for life. Gliese is an even larger superearth, it's 5.6 times larger than Earth.

There are 100s of billions of solar systems in our Milky Way galaxy, and there are 100s of billions of galaxies that make up our known Universe (we haven't even discovered much of the Universe yet ka waran, there's much more out there). We are definitely not alone in this Universe. But extraterrestrial life so far away from us would be so bizarre to us Earthlings, that we wouldn't probably be able to recognize it as Life. Than again evolution follows the same rules in same conditions, so an exoplanet that is a lot like Earth could even have humanlike Aliens. Nobody knows.

To give you an idea of how far away these exoplantes are. The Voyager 2 spacecraft is the fastest going object created by man and even for this spacecraft it would take 350.000 years to finally reach Gliese, even more to reach HD.

But if we ever colonize another planet, which we probably will because in a few billion years the Sun will destroy and swallow the Earth, than Mars will be our new home. There's already being worked on technology to drastically alter conditions on Mars in the future with the help of space-borne mirrors to supply warmth and power. Maybe we will have to live underground on Mars as well.

[ultratribalism]

The vast distance b.w earth and those other solar systems makes it almost impossible to reach them within a human time scale.alpha centauri are the brightest binary stars closest to our solar system and it will take about 100,000 years to reach it.the energy needed to go there is also a problem.But there is a hope in the near future with the discovery of the most potent fuel in the entire universe called anti-matter,the mirror image of the normal matter we see.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

I've always had dreams of Somalis colonising Mars. Lol don't ask me why.

[ultratribalism]

han Mars will be our new home

It is already proven that mars is not suitable for life with its poisonous atmosphere,it is true that is lies in the so called habitable zone of our solar system but mars is a barren waste land with almost zero probability to sustain life.however,when humans make an advancement in the jet propulsion systems and anti-matter engines are constructed then we can think of travelling those vast distance in a short time.The discovery of anti-matter is very critical in the science of physcics and aerospace and will be used to propel our interstellar spacecracts faster.but it have its own risks as these super fast jets might fall in to blackholes which are difficult to detect because their temperature is inversely proportional to thier size.blackhokles do really exist in almost the center of every galaxy like our own milkyway.as the size of a blackhole increases its temperature drops.Humans would need to develop devices to detect the presence of a blackhole on the way so that our spacecrafts will be safe.

[quark]

good stuff. mars would also be swallowed by the dying sun. we would need to be able to travel to the outskirt of the solar system to survive.

[Cinque Mtume]

han Mars will be our new home

It is already proven that mars is not suitable for life with its poisonous atmosphere,it is true that is lies in the so called habitable zone of our solar system but mars is a barren waste land with almost zero probability to sustain life.however,when humans make an advancement in the jet propulsion systems and anti-matter engines are constructed then we can think of travelling those vast distance in a short time.The discovery of anti-matter is very critical in the science of physcics and aerospace and will be used to propel our interstellar spacecracts faster.but it have its own risks as these super fast jets might fall in to blackholes which are difficult to detect because their temperature is inversely proportional to thier size.blackhokles do really exist in almost the center of every galaxy like our own milkyway.as the size of a blackhole increases its temperature drops.Humans would need to develop devices to detect the presence of a blackhole on the way so that our spacecrafts will be safe.

The biggest challenge of antimatter is the costs. 1 gram of antimatter costs 25 Billion Dollars. NASA is even considering the possibility of using magnetic scoops to collect the antimatter that occurs naturally in the Van Allen Belt, but it's not sure wether this approach is more cost effective than producing it artificially on Earth.

Technology is also on the way to create artificial DNA to partially answer the problem of unhuman travelling distances.

But yeah the black holes are the biggest dangers in our quest to travel the vast distances, they're scary phenomenons where time and space are severely altered. But the Universe is a dangerous place altogether. Galaxies frequently collide, and it's a fact that our galaxy will collide with the Andromeda Galaxy, which is an even larger galaxy than our Milky Way Galaxy. I haven't even mentioned the explosions of dying Stars or asteroids the size of Somalia travelling at ridiculous speeds in our solar system.

But we need to stay brave and be proactive in developing the possibilities of antimatter, it could prolong the existence of the Human Race with billions of years. We only have a maximum of 2.5 billion years left on this Earth before it becomes unhabitable.

[Cinque Mtume]

good stuff. mars would also be swallowed by the dying sun. we would need to be able to travel to the outskirt of the solar system to survive.

True, I meant that Mars would be our first hub before we advance to greater distances.

It's crazy tho, the Human Race has only seen the first few seconds of its own lifeline compared to the time we'll potentially spend on Earth, yet we're already at this stage. Forget about the technological advancement millennia from now, imagine us millions of years from now. Our generation will be closer to the beginning of times, than the first generation that will feel the pressure of having to leave Earth for literally greener pastures outside our solar system and perhaps even outside the milky way.

I bet that if one of us would be able to travel in time and see the Earth 100s of millions of years from now, you would probably not survive the first few minutes because of a heartattack. The Human Beings you would see would be so different, they would be literally monsters to you. Also all the manipulation of DNA, the technological stage would freak you out so much, you'd just want to go back home and kill your children.

[quark]

good stuff. mars would also be swallowed by the dying sun. we would need to be able to travel to the outskirt of the solar system to survive.

True, I meant that Mars would be our first hub before we advance to greater distances.

It's crazy tho, the Human Race has only seen the first few seconds of its own lifeline compared to the time we'll potentially spend on Earth, yet we're already at this stage. Forget about the technological advancement millennia from now, imagine us millions of years from now. Our generation will be closer to the beginning of times, than the first generation that will feel the pressure of having to leave Earth for literally greener pastures outside our solar system and perhaps even outside the milky way.

I bet that if one of us would be able to travel in time and see the Earth 100s of millions of years from now, you would probably not survive the first few minutes because of a heartattack. The Human Beings you would see would be so different, they would be literally monsters to you. Also all the manipulation of DNA, the technological stage would freak you out so much, you'd just want to go back home and kill your children.

good stuff cinque. last night i was looking at the andromeda galaxy with a telescope i bought last week. Then i remembered that i was looking at the galaxy as it was 2 million years ago. i wonder how it looks now as like you said we are on a collision course with it. walle astronomy humbles you when you get into it.

[Alphanumeric]

I love you people. :'(

I've been putting off buying a telescope for over a decade. I don't know why. This thread and the discussion on it gave me shivers. Greatness.

[Cinque Mtume]

I do always wonder tho, if the Universe is shaped like a balloon and expands itself with the speed of light, what space is the Universe itself in? Sometimes I feel infinity is an easier concept to understand than finity. I can't imagine that the buck stops somewhere. What comes after The End of Everything, and if there is, what comes after that etc. etc. etc? You know what I mean.

good stuff cinque. last night i was looking at the andromeda galaxy with a telescope i bought last week. Then i remembered that i was looking at the galaxy as it was 2 million years ago. i wonder how it looks now as like you said we are on a collision course with it. walle astronomy humbles you when you get into it.

Defintely humbling, to some it can even be depressing when they realize they're so small and insignificant.

Check out this link and scroll away:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

and this video:
[youtube]HEheh1BH34Q&feature=related[/youtube]

I love you people. :'(

I've been putting off buying a telescope for over a decade. I don't know why. This thread and the discussion on it gave me shivers. Greatness.

Most people use it just a few times before it collects dust in the attic, but I'd recommend it, I have a Meade etx-70 telescope myself. Once you find an object, you won't lose it, it will follow that object with the appropriate speed.

[union]

It's impossible to travel faster than the speed of light so we aren't going anywhere for a very long damn time. Don't screw up Earth folks, it's our only home...

[Cinque Mtume]

Who says you have to travel faster than the speed of light to go anywhere. You can travel in time by just merely approaching the speed of light. Say if you'd orbit the Earth for an hour with a speed approaching the speed of light (which is possible, just not yet, because our technology is still too primitive) and then come back to Earth after that hour in that spacecraft, when you're landing on Earth years have passed depending on how close it was to the speed of light.