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Habitable Planets May Be Common
swight1701 writes "New Scientist tells us, "one in four of the planetary systems identified to date outside the Solar System are capable of harbouring other Earths, say astrophysicists, a much higher proportion than anyone expected." Two seperate groups have come up with results that line up with each other, the latest one using simulations of 85 systems. Warm up the warp engines, time to go planet hopping!"
"This study is referring to the distance of the star to the planet being far enough that the sun doesn't fry the planet."
Actually, it referrs to a bit more than that...
It referrs to the ability of an Earth-sized planet to exist in a stable "habitable zone" orbit (not too hot, not too cold).
Not being torn apart or having a perturbed orbit due to the proximity of gas giants, etc. is another big factor.
However, it isn't exactly time to start looking for a nice time-share condo on Ceta Alpha V, yet.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
We do it, but even bacteria do it too. As plants have reduced the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, different dominant plant families have arisen able to survive in the low-CO2 environment. Insects were big at one time because there was more oxygen in the atmosphere, now the species are smaller because there is less. The idea that life requires 0-35C, 20% oxygen, is based on a static view of the world which, as our genetics lecturer once remarked "Unfortunately for some religious groups does not accord with any of the evidence."
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Oxygen and water? Again, people are assuming that earth's atmosphere and other conditions need to be recreated to sustain any life--bullshit, honey. remember, oxygen is a corrosive gas. And many organisms even here survive fine without it; even without water. Once and for all, this paradigm of everything having to be like us needs to be blown out of our systems like an explosive kidney stone. Think outside the box, or don't think at all.
Didn't mean to tear ya up if it came across that way; I just get frustrated very easily.
We now have confirmed reports from an informed Orange County minister that Ethel is still an active communist.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0210006
Note that you can download the full original in PDF, Postscript, or other scientific formats. The PDF is about a half meg in size. and is about 38 pages long.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
For an example of a very large prehistoric insect and some discussion of fluctuations in the Earth's oxygen levels see Meganeura monyi and:
Dudley, R. 1998, Atmospheric oxygen, giant Paleozoic insects and the evolution of aerial locomotor performance. Journal of Experimental Biology. 201: 1043-1050.
Graham, J.B., Dudley, R., Aguilar, N.M., and Gans, C. 1995, Implications of the late Paleozoic oxygen pulse for physiology and evolution. Nature. 375: 117-120.
First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
The Oxygen in earths atmosphere came from the earliest living organisms. They metabolized CO2 and released waste Oxygen. Oxygen is too reactive to nature naturally in large quantities in an atmosphere. If we find Oxygenated worlds, we found life of some kind, and life that has been established for billions of years no less.