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1,000 exoplanets found; 12 could support life

Esper

Esper

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For all you science and astronomy lovers.

Astronomers have now found over 1,000 planets out there, 12 which they say are neither too hot nor too cold (in the Circumstellar habitable zone or "Goldilocks zone") and could potentially support life. Estimates are that one in six stars could have an Earth-size planet around them. Odds seem to be ever increasing that there will be another Earth-like planet out there. Do you think we'll find one? What kind of ramifications would there be if we did find life? And for a more down-to-earth question, are we spending enough on space-related projects like space travel, moon bases, and the discovery of exoplanets?

[Here is an article if you want to read more.]
 
Flushed

Flushed

never eat raspberries
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Scarf said:
And for a more down-to-earth question
Click to expand...
I appreciate the word play here.

Formally, I never gave the topic of other life out there much thought. But with infinite amounts of "space" I'd like to think there's life out there. Whether we find it or not is the question. And ultimately, in the distant future, a planet of relative sustainability will become increasingly important if we find no methods around our sun swallowing us whole. I don't think presently the discovery of life will have many ramifications.

On the issue of spending, some people say too much, others too little. I guess I'm not as well-educated on the topic as I'd like to be, but I can say that the endeavors into space do deserve the funding, and should not receive cuts based on the current state of the global economy.
 

Darkroman

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I love hearing about this stuff. Astronomy is one of my favorite subjects. With that in mind, if we do discover that life is out there, I can only imagine that people will look at eachother and the universe in a different way. Not a whole lot of people give it any thought, even after watching so many Sci-Fi flicks, but when evidence of extraterrestrial life (exoplanet life to be more precise... life on a planet not within our solar system) would ever be found or came to us... the world would be changed forever. This is just my honest opinion.
 

Silais

That useless reptile
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The question is what type of life can be supported on these planets? I think that when most people hear that a planet can "support life" they assume it means human beings, but that's definitely not always the truth. Some planets may be able to harbor life but that life may be microorganisms or bacteria. Still, it's exceptionally interesting to me that we continue to find more planets capable of harboring some form of living being.
 

Darkroman

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Silais said:
The question is what type of life can be supported on these planets? I think that when most people hear that a planet can "support life" they assume it means human beings, but that's definitely not always the truth. Some planets may be able to harbor life but that life may be microorganisms or bacteria. Still, it's exceptionally interesting to me that we continue to find more planets capable of harboring some form of living being.
Click to expand...

People will only start to care a little bit if there are actual plant and animal life. If there happens to be intelligent humanoid life, that'll be a perspective changer.
 

krisags87

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This is definitely and interesting subject for sure. If we were to find even microbial life elsewhere, it would be awesome. Much bigger than that, if we find INTELLIGENT life! Imagine what they would look like? They would not look like the sci-fi generated aliens we see in movies. Those ones all have 2 eyes, 2 ears, a mouth... etc. But that's life that derived from here on EARTH. If life was found elsewhere, and it evolved on it's own, there is no way it'd be the same as here! (or like the aliens we see in movies) Very interesting indeed.

I personally think that they KNOW something. They've found something. For the past few years, there's been articles here and there about "What if we find life elsewhere?" and "Several life sustaining planets have been found..." stuff like that. They are letting us know little by little, hint after hint. Because if they just come out and TELL us, the world would freak out! Imagine all the chaos by the religions and stuff! Only time will tell ;)
 

Darkroman

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krisags87 said:
This is definitely and interesting subject for sure. If we were to find even microbial life elsewhere, it would be awesome. Much bigger than that, if we find INTELLIGENT life! Imagine what they would look like? They would not look like the sci-fi generated aliens we see in movies. Those ones all have 2 eyes, 2 ears, a mouth... etc. But that's life that derived from here on EARTH. If life was found elsewhere, and it evolved on it's own, there is no way it'd be the same as here! (or like the aliens we see in movies) Very interesting indeed.

I personally think that they KNOW something. They've found something. For the past few years, there's been articles here and there about "What if we find life elsewhere?" and "Several life sustaining planets have been found..." stuff like that. They are letting us know little by little, hint after hint. Because if they just come out and TELL us, the world would freak out! Imagine all the chaos by the religions and stuff! Only time will tell ;)
Click to expand...

Well the thing is they don't outright say "Life sustaining planet found!". They say "Possible life-sustaining planet found in the goldilocks region of its local solar system". As far as religions go, oh yeah... most big time religions refuse life on other planets... after all, we're the special glint in the universe.
 

Plumpyfoof

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This is cool, although I'm still waiting for an exo-Earth that won't crush me with its gravity.
Some of the planets are pretty close in size to Earth but their gravity is still way too different for humans to inhabit. And then we have to take into account if the atmosphere is similar to ours, too much Oxygen we die, too little Oxygen we die. And don't forget about all those other asphyxiating gases that could be floating around.

Until we can actually send probes to other exo-planets, we just have no idea what we're looking at.
 

krisags87

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And if there IS life on these planets, they will have evolved to suit their atmospheric conditions. We wouldn't be able to inhabit their. Planet, and they would the able to inhabit ours. Just like some sea urchins that live waaaaaaaay down below in the deepest water, when you bring them to the surface they explode cuz they are accustomed to the pressure down there! Any life we find anywhere else would be suited to live in that particular place.
 
Esper

Esper

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Silais said:
The question is what type of life can be supported on these planets? I think that when most people hear that a planet can "support life" they assume it means human beings, but that's definitely not always the truth. Some planets may be able to harbor life but that life may be microorganisms or bacteria. Still, it's exceptionally interesting to me that we continue to find more planets capable of harboring some form of living being.
Click to expand...
Ah, you're talking about extremophiles. Yeah, there is a pretty broad range of what's "habitable" even here on Earth which is why people still think there could be life in lots of weird places, but I think when we talk about supporting life we mean something at temperatures where liquid water is possible, water being necessary to life as we know it. Too cold and you get ice. Too hot and you get vapor.
 

AzuGazer

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u know, as a christian, im not too sure that the bible says anythings about life on other planets. I would just suspect that they they either when through their trials or are perfect and fruitful.

Though i do find it odd that we seem to be the only known planet right now that holds intelligent life. i specifically remember seeing somewhere about the farthest solar system from ours in existence. but still, only planets that may or may not be able to inhabit life. i think the closest to that was the talk of little green men (which i just did a search of and turned up it wasn't real :U )

then again, those discussions about area 51 could be real... meh, i wish there was a place like Pokemon our there =W=
 

Rezilia

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Gilese 581 is a Red Sun. It has a few *possible* planets with life support. Now for all the Superman and Doctor Who jokes! :D

--

For everything else, there's Terraforming!
 

KingCharizard

C++ Developer Extraordinaire
1,229
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Scarf said:
For all you science and astronomy lovers.

Astronomers have now found over 1,000 planets out there, 12 which they say are neither too hot nor too cold (in the Circumstellar habitable zone or "Goldilocks zone") and could potentially support life. Estimates are that one in six stars could have an Earth-size planet around them. Odds seem to be ever increasing that there will be another Earth-like planet out there. Do you think we'll find one? What kind of ramifications would there be if we did find life? And for a more down-to-earth question, are we spending enough on space-related projects like space travel, moon bases, and the discovery of exoplanets?

[Here is an article if you want to read more.]
Click to expand...

The one thing I always hated about science, is we always assume, because we need water and a certain conditions(temperature,Oxygen etc..) to live/be here that all life needs the same to survive. I think that is why we haven't found life anywhere else yet. We are doing it wrong. I believe they found another Planet that is almost exactly like earth. Not sure the name but it was in the news a year or 2 back.
 
Esper

Esper

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Posts
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KingCharizard said:
The one thing I always hated about science, is we always assume, because we need water and a certain conditions(temperature,Oxygen etc..) to live/be here that all life needs the same to survive. I think that is why we haven't found life anywhere else yet. We are doing it wrong. I believe they found another Planet that is almost exactly like earth. Not sure the name but it was in the news a year or 2 back.
Click to expand...
The problem is that we don't know how else life could work because we don't have any examples around here. We can only extrapolate on what we know so we see a planet too hot for liquid water and we can only assume life can't happen there. And from a practical perspective, we're looking for signs of life based on Earth standards partially as reassurance that we'll have a backup just in case. It's not possible now, but it could be in the future and we want to ensure that human civilization survives.
 
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