Planetary System Similar to Sol Discovered

Anonymous Coward writes: "The Washington Post is carrying its own copy about a planetary system very similar to Sol in the Big Dipper. 47 Ursae Majoris has at least two large gas giants in circular orbits, similar to many of Sol's satellites, and the possibility exists for smaller, currently undetectable rocky planets closer to the primary. Circular orbits are less common than highly elliptical orbits, and are more promising. Read the whole article to find out why."

Comments

45 Lightyears Away...

[StaticEngine]

On detecting other planets that may sustain life, we could point a radio telescope their way and see if anything intelligent has been broadcasting something as of 45 years ago. Sure, it's highly unlikely, but if we could eliminate the background noise and pick up the extraordinarily faint signal, we'd know. If we hear nothing, it doesn't seem like we're any worse off than we were.

Of course if there is life there, and they're getting our signals, they'll at least know we're an inquisitive race, because the first episodes of Perry Mason should just be arriving...

Re:The result of my attempted post...

[kst]

In case you didn't notice, 277205 hours ago (well, now about 277206 hours) was January 1, 1970, aka the Unix epoch. Some timestamp was incorrectly set to 0 (or perhaps -1).

Re:Why should I care?

[fors]

Show me one government research program that has come anywhere close to the return on investment that the space program has. In tax dollars and technology the space program has amply repaid it's development and if we can ever get the cost to orbit down the benefit to humanity will be immense. But I digress, it is amazing to me that somebody so anti tech as you have just made yourself to be could turn on a computer let alone find Slashdot. The corrective fixes for Hubble are promising to bring better than 20-20 vision to those of us cursed to wear glasses. Egg crate foam matresses such as are used for bed-ridden patients are an offshoot of tech developed to keep astronauts well. GPS is and will only get more useful at keeping people from getting lost or finding airplane crashes and many other uses. Cell phone technology has brought communications to many parts of the world where the infrastructure isn't there for good reliable landlines. Satellite tv has brought the news and education to many parts of the world that had no idea of what was happening in the rest of the world. Those are only the things I could think of real quick that NASA and government funded space research have brought about. There are a whole lot more. So get off your high horse and realize that money spent on research is never in vain. There will always be some kind of payoff even if it isn't obvious to idiots like yourself.

Why look?

[DarkHelmet]

Yes, there might be life. There might be signs of biological life on a planet that's far away. But what's the point? The only confirmed life on other planets far away will be from "Intellegent Life" (Meaning they have access to radios). And even if communication is possible, there's a latency of 45 years just to say hello back and forth.

"Hi" (45yrs)
"Hi" (90yrs)
"How are you?" (135yrs)
"We're fine on this planet, how are you?" (180yrs)
"We're doing okay. Too bad the person who originally sent you this message is dead now." (225yrs)
Our condolences. (270yrs)

Looking for life this way is not only difficult, but nearly futile. Anything lower than 20th century technology on their side and they won't hear us. Anything greater than 21st technology and chances are they'll find us a LOT sooner than we'll find them.

That, and they'll be using something other than radio waves to communicate. Maybe I'm just dreaming.

Either that, or bend space just to send an alien over here to bitchslap us and tell us how silly we are.