NASA leak confirms galaxy full of Earth-like planets
Those sneaky NASA guys, with their enormous rockets, even bigger hangars and secret post-Newtonian physics that they’re obviously squirreling away for a rainy day – obviously.
Well, it turns out that NASA has been busy surveying the universe of late, and far from finding it to be an unwelcoming and dangerous void, it is in fact a jamboree of lush verdant planets that we’ll easily be able to turn into golf resorts and retirement communities – probably.
Ok, enough with the flippant tone. This is serious. Earlier this month a co-investigator on the Kepler Satellite mission, Dimitar Sasselov of Harvard University, whose job it is to sniff out Earth-like planets in the cosmos, announced quite plainly to a TED conference in Oxford that, “planets like our own Earth are out there. Our Milky Way galaxy is rich in this kind of planet.”
The announcement, which didn’t emerge until organizers at the conference got around to posting a video online last week, was especially worthy of note as it was based on data from Kepler that team members had been allowed to keep private for further analysis, until next February. Traditionally, this sort of find would be released formally with all involved scientists onboard lined up ready to take a bow.
The surprise announcement came when Sasselov got onto the crucial subject of size, using a bar graph to illustrate his findings. Out of around 265 Kepler planets detailed on the graph, about 140 were labeled “like Earth,” in terms of their size. That means planets with a radius smaller than twice the Earth’s radius.
Sasselov did emphasize that these are not confirmed exoplanets. As many as half of them could turn out to be very un-earth like. They could have mountains made out of luminous pink Playdoh and swarms of golden octopuses shimmying majestically across their surfaces – probably.
Sasselov did say that astronomers will be able to identify at least 60 Earth-like planets out of the bunch. The cheeky public outing of preliminary results would seem to confirm that Kepler has succeeded in showing that Earth may not be quite so unique as we previously thought.
The timing’s great as far as I’m concerned – I’ve been getting itchy feet for a while on this planet. Who fancies getting all Arthur Dent with me this summer? I can bring a tent and you can bring sandwiches - but not egg, I can’t eat egg, it makes me short tempered.
DIS IS SOOO SUPER COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR
Should this really be a surprise to anyone?
I’ll get my towel.
[...] Those sneaky NASA guys, with their enormous rockets, even bigger hangars and secret post-Newtonian physics that they’re obviously squirreling away for a rainy day – obviously. Well, it turns out that NASA has been busy surveying the universe of late, and far from finding it to be an unwelcoming and dangerous void, it is in fact a jamboree of lush verdant planets that we’ll easily be able to turn into golf resorts and retirement communities – probably. Ok, enough with the flippant tone. This is serious. Earlier this month a co-investigator on the Kepler Satellite mission, Dimitar Sasselov of Harvard University, whose job it is to sniff out Earth-like planets in the cosmos, Read ahead [...]
this is nothing new, there are two “earth like planets” in our solar system called Mars and Venus.
galaxy full of earth like planets is the same as saying universe full of sun sized stars
[...] Guess not. [...]
“this is nothing new, there are two “earth like planets” in our solar system called Mars and Venus.”
really….? how exactly are these Earth-like? They may be similar in size (Venus more-so than Mars), thats about it.
Venus:
Atmospheric Pressure of 9.3 MegaPascals (9.3 Million Pascals)
Atmospheric composition of ~95% Carbon dioxide
Mean surface temperature of about 900 degrees F
Thick, opaque atmosphere that lets very little visible light through, but captures and traps a ton of infrared light
No liquid water, lots of liquid and molten rock
Earth:
Atmospheric Pressure of 101 kiloPascals (101 thousand Pascals)
Atmospheric composition of ~75% Nitrogen, ~28% Oxygen, and ~.038% Carbon dioxide
Mean surface temperature of about 57 degrees F
Transparent atmosphere that lets nearly all visible light through
75% liquid water
@Greg:
“about 140 were labeled “like Earth,” in terms of their size. That means planets with a radius smaller than twice the Earth’s radius.
Sasselov did emphasize that these are not confirmed exoplanets. As many as half of them could turn out to be very un-earth like. They could have mountains made out of luminous pink Playdoh and swarms of golden octopuses shimmying majestically across their surfaces – probably.”
So they are earth-like by the definition in the above article, which then goes to note that they could be made out of luminous pink Playdoh! Of course, Mars and Venus are unfortunately not made of such exotic materials as that.
Personally I’m more interested in other factors, but it is interesting that there are so many planets of similar size to Earth.
@Jim
” which then goes to note that they could be made out of luminous pink Playdoh!”
now THAT is a planet id like to visit
[...] Guess not. [...]