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 toward 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 make the star's light spectrum move toward longer wavelengths when it's moving away, and toward 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.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertise with us | About us | Help | Advertising Practices
I like this site so much, bookmarked. "Nostalgia is not what it used to be." by Peter De Vries. web hosting http://www.dancome.org
25 X THE Size of Our Earth. Then with that mass one should conclude that it should have 25x the Gravity of our
Little old Earth?
Our Gravity on Earth 7 Lb per Square Inch. So 25x 7= 175 Lbs per square inch!
So let's say were off by 50% that is still around 88 Lbs per Square Inch?
Man can go there but he will most likely never be able to leave and will not be able to survive!
The mass has to be somewhere near Ours!
hope springs eternal-
out of the ashes the phoenix arises
before hiroshima the crew
of the enola gay took
communion
You really make it seem really easy together with your presentation but I find this topic to be actually something that I believe I would by no means understand. It seems too complex and very vast for me. I'm taking a look forward for your next put up, I will try to get the cling of it!
Its such as you learn my mind! You appear to understand a lot approximately this, such as you wrote the ebook in it or something. I believe that you can do with a few % to power the message home a little bit, however other than that, that is great blog. A great read. I'll definitely be back.
Heya i'm for the primary time here. I came across this board and I in finding It really useful & it helped me out a lot. I am hoping to offer one thing again and help others like you aided me.
I am no longer positive the place you're getting your info, however good topic. I must spend a while learning more or figuring out more. Thanks for excellent information I was searching for this info for my mission.
We are a group of volunteers and opening a brand new scheme in our community. Your site provided us with useful info to paintings on. You've done a formidable activity and our entire group will be thankful to you.
Nice post. I used to be checking continuously this blog and I am inspired! Very helpful information specifically the ultimate section
I maintain such information much. I used to be seeking this certain information for a long time. Thanks and best of luck.
I love this blog and every thing about it. I have been reading it for awhile but have yet to say hello. well...Hello!
SEO We are a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your site provided us with valuable info to work on. You have done a formidable job
I loved both the first and second movies. As far as page 47 some of the theories I read were good ideas. I don't know if someone has brought this up but possibly page 47 contained an ancient language. This would bring Ben Gates' mother back into the movie, her being a language expert. Also the "life altering" comment could possibly refer to the Atlantian power source.
Thanks, I have been searching for facts about this topic for ages and yours is the best I've located so far.
How many brains cells do we actually use?
What a remarkable question. My "doctrine's" small and unique little contribution is called western civilization. The Catholic Church is also the founder of most of the great Universities of the Western world wherein the scientific method was developed. Just a small little contribution though, Wester Civilization. I am not surprised you knew nothing about it.
Very nice site!
Very nice site!
Very nice site!
Great–Where can I get my ticket–
I think people considering this information and then applying it their religion should consider when these texts were written. Many of the stories written were an attempt to explain the unexplained – enough to tide us over until an explanation can be found. I would think that it shows that whatever god you believe in in a good light – that we as humans are to evolve over time and obtain the meanings and answers over time to these unexplained questions. Advancements in science don't come about with the intent to disprove religious texts, but rather to advance knowledge and even the Vatican has said the bible isn't to be used as a science texts. I think it boils down to some people want to know and explore more and some people are satisified with what they already know.
Lots of planets, but there is only 1 SUN!
Help, I'm being held captive by the mushroom people, the earth is in great danger, Calvin Coolidge must be warned.
This sounds very interesting, and potentially a wonderful discovery. But my question is this: Who will inhabit such a place (if that ever becomes a possibility) if it takes 35 years to get there? If I left now, I'd be in my 50s before I arrived! I guess it could be a retirement community.
Of course, that's supposing that a human could travel at the speed of light.
This is so cool! Almost impossible for me to wrap my head around though.
I-GOT-EXCITED
I find your deductions clueless of the fact that you are not every thing that exist(or was made), its a fact that we rule this planet, but these is beyond our ability to even comprehend. One more thing if there's no God so what's the worry and bother, but if there is a God i think well all find out eventually.
no one's mentioned fermi's paradox ??
It is impossible for human beings to travel at the speed of light, in fact I would eat my foot if you could accelerate a single celled organism to the speed of light without destroying it. Currently we are having difficulties accelerating photons to the speed of light in our particle accelerators. We are somewhat hopless, this planet is where all humans will live and die. As for ancient aliens...... or as some say "the horny astronaut theory" look at the evidence and criticism objectively and realize how funny the theory is, laugh, and most importantly..... stop being so stupid.
OK, back to where we started. Same old fights. I'll get my popcorn, while you guys jump in the mess and fight around.
Let's go!
I will drive.
We can take my Nova. It's Super.
Quick! Build a rocket! We need to get the hell out of here, now!
What ever they do don't send satelites or space greetings to these planets. If there is intelligent life there and they are of the unfriendly kind its only a matter of time before they come in our direction for global takover.
After we completely destroy our planet we may have to make a move to one of those new worlds...if we survive long enough.
It would be a million times easier for scientist to try to fix the problems we have on earth than find a way to travel to another planet to escape this one(even as mind boggling as earth's problems are). TRY TO COMPREHEND HOW FAR A LIGHT YEAR TAKES TO TRAVEL with our current technology and NOTHING better in the "pipeline". Wormholes or other theories are simply distractions from reality when we think about real space travel(not to mention all the other challenges that we would have to solve to live on these planets even if they can support life.)
God created us all!!!!!.....
............@ruben
"God created us all!!!!!....."
............so say you....... hold that thought.........
I want to be the first to open a McDonalds franchise on SuperEarth! Start clogging the arteries of the aliens, yeah that's it.
bald is the new afro
can we please just find a cure for baldness...please?
So does this mean once humanity has used up earth we can move on to another planet and start in on that? There's always hope.
Does anybody think anymore? If it takes so many light years to travel there, ready for this? why don't we travel there at night only..oh yeah!..hence my name..you're all welcome
Great news!! Another planet that we can exploit and trash!!!
It's a shame that we don't spend this research money on helping our own planet that will be our one and only home for the next couple of years!
Ever wonder why they don't show us a real picture of this "planet"? Why is it just an artists impression that they don't even provide the name of? "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....."
They don't actually have an actual picture of it. It's much to far away. They can tell it's there though because of the effect that it has on the star that it goes around. The star will wobble a little due to the gravitational pull of the planet. With telescopes, they can actually see it wobble left and right, then using the boppler effect, they can see it wobble forwards and backwards.
So there is no picture of the planet so an artists drawing is the best they can do.
in the only picture they had, it had its eyes closed
if we know the general directions of these super planets, could we not point high gain SAT to "listen" to their signals for technology like radio waves ? or using laser to point and listen ?
They should have put the X-Files song as a background to this story
So we reach the exo-planet... what is next? everybody texting on smartphones instead of having real persons friends? everybody watching cable TV? everybody shopping potatochips to watch the football game on TV? and next? drugdealers? drug addicts? unemployment? overpopulation again? religious folks killing eachother for religious reasons?
I'd rather prefer going to Canada, seriously...
Jokes apart, this is amazing news, now scientists can FOCUS the SETI program (or wathever the new name is) to those exoplanets, with a little luck, maybe find extraterrestrial INTELLIGENT life (another civilization with technology).
OR in a couple of decades maybe find some forms of life.
Right now on numerous far off planets the sun is rising, the wind is gently blowing, life forms are awakening and plants are growing in abundance... makes one feel rather small when you consider our fleeting existence here on planet Earth.
i think it's just plain sad that people choose not to believe in anything...what kind of a life is that? pretty empty i would guess...i guess they choose to believe the human race just evolved out of the sky and fell onto this planet...highly unlikely don't you think? something had to create us...and i choose to believe it was GOD! i just feel sorry for all the lost hopeless people in this world. if you don't believe in anything, then that doesn't give you to right to trash talk people that believe in GOD...
I second that ! people are close minded and want to bash the one who created them and the world with the universe but not want to believe in the higher mighty is just plain dumb....
I thought it was the Christians who believed people just fell out of the sky (so to speak) out of nothing. I'd rather believe in science which has theories based off facts rather than religion which has theories based off nothing. And don't worry, we all feel sorry for you people too....
Poor Harley. When you pass you will be all dressed up with no place to go, just like the rest of humanity.
Pathetic Earthlings pay attention to your world!
No really? There is other planets out there? No way I must be dreaming. Please people stop letting the government, scientist or orther corporations lie to you. Find out the real facts on your own somehow if you have some intelligence. The universe is full of new discoveries every day. Please people start being aware of your surrondings. Pay attention, eat healthy, excerise, read, travel, love, treat people with respect, do the right thing and maybe this world will change into a better place. I'm tired of all the lies you hear from government, big corporations that run this world, scientist,the FDA, and many more conspiracies. Have a good day and pay attention.
Great!!! Now all we need is a billion lifetimes to get there...
Space colonization.
The next step IF we can get our act together work as one and get off this rock !
wow this is really great and big news i hope there will not be an aliens and one thing is there that planet will also the earth ?
Nice find.
BTW, only MORONS bring God into science whatever religion the God/s belong to.
It’s a sign of desperation.
I doubt we will ever get there by the time our sun explodes, unless of course there's oil.
I think they want to probe Uranus. :>
I've been reading lots of comments on this and can't believe my eyes, has anyone thought of why we have twins earth out into the universe, not to say one day we will land and live our lives like what we're doing right this second....what makes you think that GOD>>>YES GOD wants us to travel into another planet when we can't take care of the one we're on. Most of you want to beem into another galaxy or obirt into space I think you have done that in your minds, wake up ppl we can't and never WILL take another planet that GOD created and for US to destroy it.
Think this is interesting very but you guys just gotta believe I got bored in geography so I wrote dis wasss up! Missin superman<|3
Think of the potential !
No more fighting on Earth over stupid things.
We can give a planet to each group and let them fight it out:
1) A planet for Palistinians
2) A planet for Islamic Fundamentalists
3) A planet for Catholic Bishops
4) etc...
....of course, I would not recommend sending women to the Islamic planet, or small boys to the Catholic planet.
I invented the "High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher" thingy.....no, really I did.
I'm so sick of these religious people trying to find explanations for these planets through the bible. There are none, because the people who wrote the religious books didn't know anything about the universe. This statement has nothing to do with the article. I'm just sick of reading comments of pure stupidity. Hello, religious nut jobs guess what? Evolution did happen on this planet, there are other worlds, and possibly alien life in the universe. I hope one day people will let go of religion because it holds us back and we need to move forward as a species. Oh, and Global Warming is happening!
Would be the greatest day for mankind when we find someone intelligent life other than ours.. i hope i can witness this in my lifetime
Cool! New planets! Let's send the Tea/Republican Party off to them!
I say send them all off, even the dems. A no-party system would be much better for all of us. With people getting in on their own merit instead of just siding with the party that's most likely going to get the most votes.
I don't think everyone on here is realizing that we can't make it to another planet with the tech we have today. To get to another planet, we'll have to be using something better than fossil fuels. The discovery of a new way to create energy is going to have to happen before we make a journey like this. And if we do pull that off, then we won't need fossil fuels anymore and we won't be destroying our planet, or the one we get to. So maybe striving to get to these other planets is the best way to save ours.
If earth-like planets can be found using ground-based telescopes, then why the heck did we send that billion-dollar Keppler telescope up there for???? It's a total waste of tax payer dollars.
With a search engine and around one minute of research you would have learned that the Kepler spacecraft uses an entirely different technique to scan many stars at once. And don't worry your little head over the cost; it comes out of NASA's budget, which is only a fraction of 1% of what the federal gov't spends. That information is also easily found.
I tried to book a flight to one of the new planets but it takes 42.44 years to get there! In short the Shuttle isn't fast enough. In talks with the Russian Space Team they have something to get there in only 30.29 years. For now I will just purchase a large ranch with a lake and water falls. All for under 9,000 so get yours today!
"Super-earths" seems a little misleading. They're bigger than earth; why not call them "little jupiters" or... I dunno. Only one of them is possibly anything like earth, so it seems sensationalism is winning in science news, as usual.
But in any case, kudos to the scientists working so hard for helping us understand the universe around us!
A Super Earth is a rocky dense planet, while Jupiter is comprised of mostly gas, PB. That is the basic difference.
No, they are called Super Earth's because they are located around the same distance from their sun, as we are from our sun. Both our sun and their sun are similar in size and power. That distance is a zone for potential life, where the temperatures are just right. We can't see the planets just their shadows, and thats how we determine their size and distance from their sun. I'm I the only one who watches the science channel? God, I'm a ********.
The first answer is the correct one. They're called "super Earths" and not "little Jupiters" because they are large, rocky planets, not balls of gas.
Keiths, you are referring to the "Goldilocks Zone", that distance from any star that allows for the surface of that particular planet being able to sustain a temperature that allows for liquid water. It is a very popular consensus among the science community that liquid water is essential for life as it is known on Earth. It does not matter the size or type of a star, or for that matter the size of the planet, but it is the temperature of the star combined with the distance AND orbit of the planet that may allow for the presence of liquid water. You are essentially correct in the assumption of water possibly on this planet. As for your statement 'We can't see the the planets, only their shadows' is grossly incorrect. The 2 main ways we "see" exoplanets are detection of the effect of gravity on a star causing a wobble and recently developed ability to detect a planet transiting a star.
OH, and you aren't the only one who watches the science channel. I'm simply a small bit better at watching and retaining information. Try a bit harder, my friend, and you might amaze the world we know.
Travel to this planet IS possible! I created a space/time folding machine from a few transistors from that portable radio that has batteries with unlimited power and life, a few coconut husks, and 42 palm fronds! All of the castaways drew straws to see who went first, and that lucky so and so Gilligan won again! *%^$%^&$$#!!!
100 Billion Galaxies and our galaxy is the only one with life form....Give me a Break!...lol..lol
After we suck the earth of all of its life sustaining properties, we can hopefully find a way to go be a cancer to another planet.
Although this is great news, I cannot help but think that our curiosity on this may only lead us to disaster. Does anyone think that if we were honestly visited by "alien beings" that militarys all over the world would welcome them with open arms? If we found life on another planet with "alien beings" wouldn't we be seen as invading their territory? I suppose at the same time everything could work out to our advantage.
Sometimes I think we just need to leave the "unknown" alone. Put the knowledge, funds and time into fixing what we already have created on Earth.
“Sometimes I think we just need to leave the "unknown" alone”
If we did this we would still be living in caves and blaming demons for illness.
The more of these planets they find, the more I realize that earth really could be unique - that there really might not be any other place out there where we could live. I never used to think like that. I used to think the idea of God making a unique place were we could come into existence was unlikely - but now, I wonder.
And, suppose they did finally manage to find another place where we could theoretically live, how would we get there? Space travel is just really not up to going to another star system at all, not in any realistic period of time.
We really need to learn to live here. We just really need to learn to do that in a sustainable way.
Your logic is terrible. First.. the search is not JUST for places we can live but for ‘other’ life and to learn more about how the galaxy functions. Secondly.. we just started looking, just because we haven’t found Earth 2 yet in no way makes the idea of a magical sky daddy anymore rational.
Cool discovery!
cool.
Can I move there? This place sucks now.
great Thud, i have been wondering how you got here at first place.....this explains.
it doesnt even matter – US Gov has been teleporting, timetraveling, and had contact with other beings since the 1970s at least.
Thud, i have been wondering how you got here at first place.....this explains.
Wow!after reading all the comments in this article I said to my self "ok,wft?" Lol..why do you all argue about Gods existence?its a matter of faith!if you do not believe in God the almighty it is your personal concern. You don't have to criticize others for their own believes.God created the earth and the universe!us etc..is there other planets with life out there?we simply can't question what we don't know and will never know!a fact is,we were meant to live in this planet. Scientist are full of crap!thanks to technology there's global warming and terrorism.yet!it is necessary now a days and a good source.the thing is!we don't limit our selves and we try to be outstanding. I ask all of you a question!do you think scientists believe in God?most of them do!some of them don't. God gave us the will to do our own matter in this planet. To use the intelligence he gave us and do good not to try and mock God!humans now are being cloned!but their own game soon will come to an end.Us humans are the ones destroying this planet!not mother nature!for those who question "have you seen God?" No one has!no one will until our judgement.it is a matter of faith like I said!if you don't believe is your matter.all of you not God believers!in what do you believe?aliens,ghosts,bigfoot!?this aint a scifi movie!its reality!one day you will believe in God!just like I did.
I came up with a handful of responses but really.. you are just beyond all reason it would be a waste of time. So I’ll just sit here and enjoy a nice laugh at your expense. Thank you.
Oh and by the way, the answer is 42.
Hey – maybe they have fossil fuels! We can send our envoys, then our politicians, who'll inform them they're not allowed to be gay, and teach them how to be white Anglo-saxton protestants! Then, when they rebel, we'll call them insurgents and kill them all....and gee....all the oil's OURS!
-GOP
In the end, there might have to be several generations who sacrifice their lives on a spaceship en route to the new planet and sustain the existence of humanity on the way to the new home.
So, let me get this straight. they measure the few feet, (or even kilometers,) a star "wobbles", and this system is how many light years away. Hmmmm... That's like measuring how much a gnats butt on the moon wiggles using a $50 telescope. These measurements have no way to account for the inexplicable variables between the two measuring points. That and the fact that there are many undiscovered things that could be causing these red/blue shifts. These guys are fools to pursue extra-solor planet hunting in this manner, and bigger fools to publish such rubbish publicly.
So prove them wrong with real science and not just arm chair opinions and get your own article on CNN. I’ll wait….
i think that everyone is failing to recognize the reality is that humankind has only started destroying earth in the last few centuries with all of the oil demand, pollution etc.
so going to a new planet is not a solution becasue we will just deplete and polute it at the same rate we currently do.
so same problem, planet with a few hundred years left on it.
Anyone care to guess how long it will be until the hippies start crying that we're somehow destroying that planet too?
I give it 3 years myself and I'm trademarking the terms Galactic Warming and Galactic Cooling.
@EK- READ THE FINE PRINT....
The HARPS device looks for planetary objects distorting the sun they revolve around. Some of these planets we only know exist because 1) Gravity in the solar system dictates that one exists there or 2) Light from the sun gets distorted at a regular intervals denoting an orbital body crossing the view.
.
This far into space, it isn't as simple as looking through a telescope at other planets. They use infared, xay and other non-visible spectrum scopes, mathmatics, and theory to find these planets and then test what they find. The artist rendering will be the only look at this planet for probably the next 10+ years.
I LOVE our new little apartment indivdual space caps BETTER!
Can't we finish raping this planet before we start talking about raping the next one?
The HARPS instrument has identified an Earth-like planet, shown in "this artist's impression"
Not even an actual picture he?
We don't need any more of this science bs. We need more of the baby jesus in our lives. And more nascar. More jesus ! More nascar ! More jesus ! YEEEEHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWW !!
How many brain cells do we use?