Slashdot Mirror
Hubble Discovers a Hundred New Planets
Spudley writes "The BBC is reporting that the Hubble Telescope has discovered over a hundred new exoplanets - a number which almost doubles the total known. Apparently they are also expecting to be able to analyse the atmospheres of up to 20% of them. The discovery will be confirmed within the next seven days."
More aliens to hate us!
I wonder if one of them is the planet of the apes.....Oh wait staue of libetry AGGGGGGGh that was earth!!!
To see what kind of planets they are, what kind of systems etc. anyone have a link to specific data?
Probably just the ones in our solar system......
Too bad Congress is pretty much convinced to let the Hubble die...
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
A hundred new specs of dust on the lens.
http://siokaos.org/
Hate to say it; I'm with the folks who would prefer to explore by robot and orbiting camera first. That buys us time to do a a nanotube 'beanstalk' right.
What a shame that the only thing that has frequently motivated us to look to the skies and spend the money to get there is fear and politics.
RMW
flames > dev/null
we can discover hundreds of planets in other solar systems, yet are unable to sort out just one of our own.
As a long time follower of our space exploits, I was dismayed when NASA announced their plans to not service hubble. When the massive outcry came forth, they were smart and decided to do the robotic mission thing. My two cents on this matter: we can learn more from using telescopes such as hubble than we can by going back to the effing moon. This article shows that, even after all these years, hubble is a key part of our space exploration program - and it should stay that way.
Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye... then its just fun.
Good think O'Keefe is going to let it fall out of the sky, because I want to have a time when Hubble doesn't see something that vastly increases our knowlege of the surrounding universe again...
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I think they've discovered the galactic salvage yard where the empire discards worn out death stars.
Subtract a bit of fudge factor.
And some one will use this to prove that the apocolypse is just 15 days away!
We welcome out new planetary overlords.
Clearly its just trying to pad its resume now that the axe has fallen. -C
I guess the next question is how many of those are Class M planets?
Evolution or ID?
Yes now I definitely see that we need to be rid of this useless piece of space junk. It does nothing apparently but further our knowledge and increase our view of the universe. Worthless piece of junk.
Are they still planning on scrapping this thing? That would be sad.
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
I wonder if SETI will examine these areas more closely.....
If this doubles the number of known planets, does this make Earth half as significant? I mean, is Earth at all significant in the big scheme of things? I am reminded of that picture from Carl Sagan's book showing Earth as a mere speck against the vastness of space. I think the book was called The Pale Blue Dot. Wow, this makes me feel a lot better about forgetting to pay my phone bill.
Unknown host pong.
That I read about recently that predicts the number of planets which are capable of supporting carbon-based life. Does anyone know where I can find it? The guy that came up with it has used his own numbers/functions to predict that there are some 200,000 (maybe more?) planets in our galaxy alone that can support carbon-based life. Of course, this is all hinges on my memory being correct . . . hmmmmm.
The Drake Equation.
So how many of those 200-odd planets that we know of are capable of supporting carbon-based life? You crunch the numbers . . .
My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas. -- Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me
hmmm.... I wonder if they have oil.
<firing six shooters in the air>Bring it on!</firing six shooters in the air>
-truth
I had a steady B+ in my AI class until I failed the Turing test...
Is anyone even clear now on how many planets are in just our solar system? We found two more even smaller than pluto but now they're saying not even pluto counts as a planet..so rather than just be like WEE LOOK A ROCK hows about we get some unified standards of some sort
Yeah, getting kids interested in other planets so they study science is a worthless endevor.
It was my understanding the exoplanets are detected by analyzing the "wobble" of the star that they orbit. How is it possible to determine anything about the atmosphere of the planet?
Some long lost descendent of George Bush, who undoubtedly will have skated by in life and fall bass-ackawards into the galaxy presidency, will invade at least one of these planets in an effort to take attention from his failed policies. It will have the opposite effect.
Really though. Do teachers even need to teach the existence of more planets? Every child who has gone through fifth grade science would assume there are other planets -- a scientifically flawed induction, but oftentimes simple intuitions tend to be at least partially accurate.
--Kevin
Looks like it's time to speed up discussions on the ethics and implementation of the Prime Directive!
...these planets? Is it some kind of spectrum analysis?
Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
Excuse my ignorance, but I didn't know that there were any other know planets outside of are solar system.
Amazing...
Does anyone know:
A) When the first exo-planet was discovered.
B) A good source of of info on this.
Thanks.
Yeah, getting kids interested in other planets so they study science is a worthless endevor.
I didn't say anything about the planets in our solar system. Just the ones so far away that we don't know anything about anyway. I still say there is no practical reason for this.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
That would be the planet Kashyyk. Now, the presence of wookies on Endor would not make sense. But there is Chewbacca on Endor. Therefore France must quit surrendering to the beowulf cluster of our linux alien overlords and acquit OJ.
--Kevin
Oh please there are much more important things for people in education to focus on then some planet hundreds of light years away. What practical reason would they have for teaching (what little they know) about the contants of a planet's atmosphere in another galaxy.
That was meant to be sarcastic, I hope. If we force education on our childrent to focus solely on the exactly what they need to know to be another cog in the machine, and not a thing more, we will be turning out a generation of proles. Things like "No Child Left Behind" and its emphasis on standardized testing are likely to do just that.
Cosmology teaches us about the joy and wonder of the universe, and impresses us that we are able to gain even a glimmer of an understanding of it. That's enough "practicality" for me, and I sure do hope my little boy learns this in school and not just from me.
To reduce crime, make fewer things against the law.
...what this means for the SETI guys. I mean, it's not conclusive evidence of anything, but it'll be interesting to see who's working overtime this week.
I have discovered a truly marvelous
The discovery will lend support to the idea that almost every sunlike star in our galaxy, and probably the Universe, is accompanied by planets.
If you've ever read anything about star formation the co-effect of planet formation seems a no-brainer. Just eddies in an accretion disk. It would seem more unlikely to me that an accretion disk would perfectly aggregate into a lone star. In fact, you can apply this to other things, such as ring formation, and more sporadically I would imagine, life. The universe is a BIG place.
SETI covers a small area of the galaxy, I don't know exactly but I think it has a diameter of about 5 light-years.
Applications for the Imperial Space Invader force are being accepted now (formation flying experience desirable).
It's a good thing that we are going to let the Hubble fall into disrepair. All of these new discoveries mean that we will have to keep revising our Science textbooks and that is an expense that our school systems cannot afford. At least when that damn telescope stops working we will can content that we know all that it is possible to know without the burden of having to keep up with these new "facts."
The Tools Of Ignorance wanna be a tool?
Why would they be able to see farther? Even if they launched it out of the solar system, which would cost billions and take many years, it would only be like .01% closer to the nearest star.
So now all those who have criticised Hubble should be sorry. They have to eat Hubble pie.
Whether the aliens prefer OGG to AAC?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
This is even beyond Carl Sagan's reasoning of the likleyhood of the existence of life in the Universe. It is hard to imagine the possible abundance of extra terra life, but this theory is reasonable, and this discovery is one step closer to proving it.
I just wish I could be around to witness the presentation of absolute proof that life exists elsewhere in the Universe.
Yep, I teach physics and astronomy at the local community college, and I diffuse such statements at the beginning of each semester. "Are we ever going to use this stuff?" students typically ask physics and math professors at some point during their studies (always at the difficult parts --- no one has objections to learning irrelevant easy stuff). "Nope!" I say, proudly beaming. Teaching astronomy to the general public has no practical value, aside from the (perhaps) 2nd order effect of funding for space missions that help make technological advances. Rather, I hope to teach them how to think critically, expose them to scientific ideas, methods, and principles, and instill some sense of appreciation for the amazing universe we are embedded in. If we stimulate imaginations and a little "shock and awe" at ideas not yet imagined, hopefully that is some slight public service. This is especially important for children, whose romantically large sense of wonder should be occasionally inflated. As Feynman said, "science is like sex; occasionally something practical comes out of it, but that's not the reason we're doing it."
"Beam me up Scotty, I'm going home" :)
I have always loved space and the notion of other planets and potentially with life. I hope we find one that does have an atmosphere that can support life.
Even if we do not make it in my lifetime, to know it is there, waiting, is an amazing thing indead.
I am feeling inspired right now - I am glad I read that article
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
If nobody had ever worked on areas that have no immediate practical purpose, we'd still be focused on optimizing the designs of pointed sticks and stone hammers.
yes, I do mean Rigel IV
The discovery will be confirmed within the next seven days. ...when they return our emails
What practical reason would they have for teaching (what little they know) about the contants of a planet's atmosphere in another galaxy.
if they travel there somday they will need to know how to properly adjust their breathing apperatus. That is, if they recover from suspended animation successfully.
Yeah, getting kids interested in other planets so they study science is a worthless endevor.
Right on! They should be interested in Guns and Explosions and Patriotic Excercises!
How to show your patriotism in 12 simple steps:
1) Believe whatever the president says.
2) Believe whatever the vicePresident says.
3) Never talk to liberals/lefties/hippies/openSource community freaks.
4) Always believe the President.
5) Always buy american.
6) Always believe the President.
7) Enlist in the national guard.
8) Always believe the President.
9) Do your WinXP updates regularly.
10) Never download/share music.
11) Never share anything.
12) Always charge whenever possible in US currency.
You can be a patriot today!
Yam, yam, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade
I wouldn't be so sure...until this article, I thought they were still searching for proof of the existance of other planets. But that's just me.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
So you're saying that, as educators, we should ignore everything in space? After all, everything is so far away, and we don't know anything about any of it really. So why teach it in a classroom?
I, personally, remember being fascinated by the idea of planets around other stars. It helped increase my interest in science in general. Granted, such topics shouldn't become a huge deal in the classroom (i.e. no testing on the atmospheric contents of planet 12327843653), but they should still be taught if only for the idea of it.
A kid hearing about the possibility of a planet ten times larger than Jupiter around another star that has some characteristics of a star isn't always useless. It might be eye-opening for some.
I'm glad you weren't in charge back in the day!
"What? A new route to India? That's way on the other side of the world! We don't know anything about what's out there across the water! What could we possibly gain from this?"
"What? A manned trip to the moon? That's millions of miles away! We don't know what's out there in space! What could we possibly gain from this?"
"What? A probe on Mars? That's an entirely different planet! We don't know anything about the place! What could we possibly gain from this?"
There is air in space.
While the BBC News headline is as gung-ho as Slashdot's uncritical echo, the first paragraph contains the key word 'may' ("may have discovered..."), and even the lead scientist admits that some of the planets may not be confirmed.
The BBC article also notes that confirmation may not come "until Fall", not in 'seven days' as you have.
This smells more like a press release than meaningful, peer-reviewed astronomy to me. I suspect it's a piece of "hey, let's keep Hubble" propaganda.
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
This is incorrect, probably based on a misreading of this quote: "If this is confirmed, in seven days we will have doubled the number of planets known in nine years."
The article states that Kailash Sahu, the astronomer who made the discovery, did so during an observation period of seven days. According to the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, they don't expect final results until September or October.
I would have thought with the collective power of everyone with SETI on their PC all these years, they should have found _something_ by now - yet I've not heard of anything?
Maybe the aliens are hiding?
Oh wait, I'm an Alien - at least that's what they tell me every time I pass through US immigration.
43 - For those who require slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.
RIMMER: So -- Holly managed to navigate her way through the five Black Holes?
HOLLY appears on KRYTEN's chest moniter.
HOLLY: As it transpired, there weren't any Black Holes.
RIMMER: But you saw them -- you saw them on the monitor.
HOLLY: They weren't Black Holes.
RIMMER: What were they?
HOLLY: Grit. Five specks of grit on the scanner-scope. See, the thing about grit is, it's black, and the thing about scanner-scopes...
RIMMER: Oh, shut up.
LISTER: (Sighs.) Come on. Let's go.
Courtesy of Red Dwarf scripts
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
It's not going to be confirmed in 7 days.. it took 7 days to discover the planets. The article clearly states that confirmation of the method used will take until the fall (september/october).
Remember to pack the industrial-strength Q-Tips.
Maybe dimming was just a primary detection. They may have looked a lot of starts at the same time and later focused on those that dimmed and also used a coronograph (that reduce the bright of the star itself making the planets around it more visible.
Wait.. Doesn't 384,400 km == Millions of miles? Stupid metric system! =P
John Kerry made a speech promising to thwart "Benedict Arnold" CEOs threatening to outsource good jobs to these new planets.
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Now one of these planets has to be P9Y-4C3, this would make Dr. Daniel Jackson happy. Maybe we could send McGuyver and Samantha Carter to go exploring.
College-Pages.com - Online Colleges and Degrees
The discovery will be confirmed within the next seven days.
Until it actually happens, shouldn't we say "confirmed or refuted"? After all, if we knew the outcome, we wouldn't have to do the experiment.
On stereophonic equipment, the monaural sound obtained through multiple channels will enhance your listening pleasure.
I'm going to go on a short rant here, somewhat inspired by the parent. Feel free to downmod.
It appears to me, at this moment, that the entire US spacd program is becoming as mismanaged as the Russian one. Useful projects are threatened with mothballing, deorbit, and cancellation, while white elephants like the ISS are allowed to suck dollars. Now that I think of it, it is an absolute disgrace that no backup to the manned shuttle program was considered, in the event that disasters like Challenger and Columbia stalled major projects like the ISS and Hubble upgrades. At least the Russians have a working capsule transport system that can carry people to and from space.
I've been led to understand that the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle will be closer to a single-use capsule than a reusable spaceplane. It occurs to me, after considering the problems caused by the Columbia disaster and the presence of an ongoing, if rickety and bankrupt, Russian transport system, that maybe the old Apollo or Gemini designs should have been dusted off and updated years ago, for just such a situation like this. There is much to be said for a reusable transport system like the shuttle, but diversification is the key for the health and survival of... well, damn near anything. Relying on robots is good in terms of safety and learning how to remotely manipulate machines in space, but if we're going to travel to the Moon, and eventually Mars (and beyond?), we must get people into space, the more the better, to continue learning how to survive and travel in that harsh environment for extended periods.
Despite the hard work of the scientists and engineers at NASA, it seems to me that the American program is in disarray, buried under years of budget cuts and pointless rhetoric from various bureaucrats and politicians. The Russian program will be something of a writeoff until that agency is given a degree of stability and sure access to resources. China's program may very well lead the way to the moon again, but I have no clue just how well that program is being handled, or whether it would survive a collapse of the current authoritarian regime. Europe seems focused on unpiloted probes like Cassini, which as I said is perfectly KO, but for the lack of human interaction. India... who knows, crossing my fingers. Ultimately, we can guess what living on the Moon and during interplanetary transit will be like. We can even make some solid predictions based on our current knowledge ands cience. But, we simply won't know what is really involved in such a massive project as an orbiting construction platform, or a moonbase, until we try it. By "try", I mean dedicate the resources necessary, not the resources demanded by political convenience and pork, which is far less and more wasteful. Some of the nongovernmental efforts may also help keep people going to the stars, freed from the constraints of government bureaucracy and state inertia.*
I'm tired of dicking around, scrambling for dollars while we, as a species, waste billions trying to kill each other. What the hell, might as well launch the nukes now and get it over with. If you want to call me nuts after reading this, you're the ones trying to rationalize the wholesale immolation of millions for... what, exactly?**
Ok, rant over
* I'm not exactly talking about privatization and dividing of space here. I actually hope some non-monetary-profit projects get started. After all, there is more to wealth than dollars and lines on a map (or a contract).
**The "you" in this refers to anyone, in any set of borders, who would rather spend money on guns and bombs than food and exploration. I'm starting to wonder if there is a collective, subconscious psychosis developing among our species. The dolphins may want to make their move soon, whatever that turns out to be.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Rather, we should send up the Webb-Ellis telescope, which will pick up the other telescopes and run with them.
[OK it was lame, but there's no-one in the office. What else am I supposed to do?]
--
E_NOSIG
Think of all the cheap land/real estate to be had. I hereby claim these worlds in the name of Me.
That's what I misread this story headline as. I need to start reading some other websites...
What's 20 percent of 100?
analyzing code for SCO ;)
I am the Barber of Seville.
Everything the government does is motivated by politics. That's just life in the big city. How you eshpae and exploit that is the whole trick.
Helium balloons want to be free.
The plan's based on the idea that if you have multiple telescopes you can use interferometry to make them behave similarly to a single telescope that has a diameter the size of the gap between them.
I think (a) you'd need more than 2 of them for this to work, and (b) beyond a few light minutes' distance the communications lag would make it unworkable, but an interesting idea nonetheless.
"Nope!" I say, proudly beaming. Teaching astronomy to the general public has no practical value, aside from the (perhaps) 2nd order effect of funding for space missions that help make technological advances.
/. without science therefore science is good.
This is why our whole educational system is messed up. There are practical reasons for the average person to know about astronomy! You can navigate by the stars. Do I know how nope. I know the names of the planets, but I couldn't identify them in the sky. It isn't really practical teaching about he atomsphere and rotation of other planets. I don't really need to know that. I should be able to walk around at night though and navigate in a straight line. Heck, you could teach the phases of the moon and its effects on the tides. I know there is a relation, but on in the most general sense. This is why average people don't care about Math and Science, they are told it has no practical value! Those people are liars. Science has a lot of practical values! We wouldn't have
Some of the stars observed were seen to dim slightly in brightness. It is thought that a planet passing in front of the star is responsible for the dip in its light output.
Couldn't this "dip" be caused by sunspots?
> If this doubles the number of known planets, does this make Earth half as significant?
If someone discovered six billion people living on Mars, would that make your life drop in value by half?
Canada's MOST aka Humble space telescope discovers that Procyon isn't shaking. CBC Toronto Star Okay, it's not as fancy as a hundred planets, but it's still interesting stuff.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
As Feynman said, "science is like sex; occasionally something practical comes out of it, but that's not the reason we're doing it."
.sig
I think I just found my new
Bet this
> So now all those who have criticised Hubble should be sorry.
Maybe they should be really sorry and name the next telescope "Humble"
It's terrible that the Hubble will be allowed to die when it's still making important discoveries like this. The Bush administration won't support any NASA mission that isn't directly linked to putting men on the moon or Mars. Maybe if they let NASA improve their scientific aspects, NASA could design cheaper, reusable spacecraft.
How many stars did they have to look at to find 100 planets passing in front of 100 stars?
Think about it. Just between the Earth and the Sun, Venus only passes between our line of sight with the sun twice every hundred years (isn't that the correct figure)? I mean, it passes by in inner orbit, but it only actually eclipses the sun twice in that period. The rest of the time, it's either above or below the sun.
Now, with Venus, we're in fairly similar planes of orbit. But with other stars, the odds of the plane being in our line of sight AND a planet happening to pass right between us and the star while they're looking, the odds of that have to be pretty damn low.
I mean, I'm sure they realize this, but I'd have to think they had to look at tens of thousands of stars to catch 100 planets passing by, at least. Am I missing something?
For those who follow this field, I'll remind you of the OGLE project, which has been doing the same thing from the ground. They found 60 likely planetary candidates (out of a similar number of stars monitored), but only two of those actually look like they could be planets. All the rest are either grazing-incidence binaries or blended binaries. The higher resolution of Hubble may help the blend problem to an extent, but I highly doubt the number of actual planets is anywhere near 100.
They also have little chance of confirming whether these are actually planets, as you need to do extremely high-resolution spectroscopy in order to confirm its existence via the radial velocity method. Even Keck can only do that for stars down to ~16th magnitude, and according to the observing proposal, this survey is going down to 23rd. They might be able to get precise-enough light curves to reject false positives based on color-curve changes, but I'd like to see it before I believe it.
Microsoft delenda est!
Indeed we did show them the way, but we have long since build systems of prevent it happening anymore. Also, let's not forget, when we did it, we made it blatant what we wanted, and why we wanted it. "We're going to invade you, because we can". The American empire prefers "We're going to invade you, so you can be free... Ok?", "No, actually, please don't.", "TOUGH, FREEDOM WILL BE YOURS.".
Nope. Shouldn't you be in summer school working on your reading comprehension or something?
I'm glad there are still teachers with this attitude out there. Cries of "what practical use is that?" are disheartening. I don't know if it's just that I'm getting older and more cynical, but it seems to be more common. If there isn't an application for a discovery in the next quarter, no one's interested in it.
It's not just the things we may discover that we can't predict that are important, the process of discovery and learning is important. Without the process, we wouldn't have science as we know it. Just a bunch of people running around with alchemy sets and healing crystals.
We need to preserve and pass on the sense of awe and wonder that comes from pursuing knowledge for it's own sake. It teaches us to think, gives us perspective, and allows us to see humanity in a broader context than profits and dominance.
So, from someone who had too many teachers that answered that question with "It will be on the test", thank you.
This is the voice of World Control. I bring you Peace.
In case anyone's interested and prefers a little more science in their science reporting, here's the original proposal (it's a text file):
. pro
http://www.stsci.edu/observing/phase2-public/9750
A big aspect of this proposal *not* mentioned in the BBC article is the importance of metallicity on star formation - in other words, what star environments (old vs. young) form more planets.
I think the precision needed for interferometry requires a physical connection between the two telescopes, to hold them in position relative to each other with great accuracy. You can't digitize the images from two telescopes and combine them later for interferometry, you have to make the light gathered by the 2 scopes interfere (hense, interferometry). So basically, you can't pull it off with scopes that are disconnected and too far apart.
But shucks, we don't need hubble because telescopes that measure visible light are so useless aren't they?
Just because the new instruments capture in InfraRed, doesn't mean you won't get nice images. Scientists will be happy to apply false color techniques to thier data to make it all pretty. Most of the space images you already see are enhanced to bring out or add in the color.
I guess the joke flew over your geekling heads.. The original story said something about EXOplanets -- get it? INDOplanets? Snoop dog? Marijuana? No humor..
It's on the front page of MSN.com
The equation's purpose it to show that even when using the most conservative values you get a high potential for intelligent life arising in the universe. Nothing more.
If nobody had ever worked on areas that have no immediate practical purpose, we'd still be focused on optimizing the designs of pointed sticks and stone hammers.
Why do you all insist on changing what I am saying?
This isn't about scientific discovery. Nowhere did I say that the resources spent discovering these are wasted. I am saying there are better things to spend time teaching children in public schools about.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
I am no astronomer but... given a Jupiterlike planet in a Sunlike system, what are the odds about a telescope on a remote star sytem finding the planet in transit during a seven days session?
Like... the star diameter is 1.5 millon km., the planet is 150 000 km. diameter, it orbits at 800 millions km. from the sun in 600 weeks.
The planet can be anywhere on a 4 * PI * (800 000 000 * 800 000 000 ) square km. That's a surface about 8 * 10 exp 18 square km.
In it's orbit, the planet covers 2 * PI * 800 000 000 * 150 000. About 7 * 10 exp 14 square km. During one week it covers only 1/600th: 7/600 * 10 exp 14 square km.
Henceforth, for any observer who doesn't know about it's orbital plane, the odds for this planet to cover a given point ( the center of the star) is about 1 of (600 * 8/ 7 ) * 10 exp. ( 18 - 14 ). That's one in 6857143. Since Jupiter's diameter is about one tenth of the sun's diameter, we can assume our astronomer's odd to about 1 of 700000.
If my numbers are correct, for one detected jovian planet there is about 700000 others undetected! This is quite a lot! ( BTW, our sun is rather small... How many planets can orbit a giant star? A hundred? A thousand? ).
I'd like someone more knowledgable than me to check my numbers...
- No comments about my grammar, please, i'm a French-Canadian doing what he can...
The discovery will be confirmed within the next seven days.
Damn lag again! Stop running Win95 on dat thing
Scientific discovery has little use unless you teach the resulting knowledge to others.
Hubble finds end of Universe.
That's right. All your base.
I made the same point a month or two ago when the Space Telescope Institute released Deep Field 2 the day after Aministrator O'Keefe scrapped the shuttle servicing mission. I was flamed off of the board and modded to flamebait. I think you are right on. Hubble has considerable scientific merit left, but the mission is turning into a big dog and pony show.
an ill wind that blows no good
Your faith is very strong.
We should put a bunch og different telescope in the Sun-Earth Lagrange/libration point located away from the Sun from the Earth. The low (and eaily detectable) gravitational perturbations there, combined with the possibility of creating semi-permanent shielding from both Solar and Terrestrial radiation, with a close proximity to the Earth and relatively stationary position, all add up to one really good telescope location. You can also orbit this point in many different ways, allowing for lots of different telescopes. Then there is also the advantages of putting a space station there...
Mathematics is not a crime.
There's a great photo of Hubble firing its death beam into some hapless cluster of stars. Get some, suckers!
(No, really! Look at the article! BBC has the most amusing illustrations...)
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
If our solar system can be taken as a reasonable model, all of the relatively large objects follow roughly circular orbits. In view of that model, it seems reasonable to assume that there would pretty small numbers of planets in significantly eccentric orbits.
Hey, one of those planets just might be Planet X! Heck with oil, we need to be concerned about our reserves of illudium phozdex!
Hubble on verge of curing cancer, inventing perpetual motion device, NASA lets fall into atmosphere.
"Hubble Discovers a Hundred New Planets"
I first read the headline as
"Hubble Discovers a Hundred New Patents"
Unless we find some big loophole that allows us to get around relativity, the earth really is an island to itself, and while it may be one of millions, it is the only one that will ever have any significance whatsoever to us.
Of course, six hundred years ago everyone was convinced that the earth was flat, and that if you sailed too far you'd fall off the edge.
I'll grant that science plays a significantly bigger role these days than it did back then, and that we know a bit more now about how much we don't know, but I still argue that we don't yet know enough to disclaim the possibility of faster-than-light communication or travel.
That said, I'm not overly optimistic about the chances of figuring out FTL in my lifetime, and only slightly more optimistic about the chances of figuring out a way to extend my lifetime until we do figure out FTL (or its impossibility). At the moment I'd put my money on us blowing ourselves up before we get that far . . .
One reason why people may not "get it" is that that is not an acronym. An acronym is associated with a thing. While a memory device could technically be called a thing, it is not a physical entity, but a mere contrivance of the mind. Nobody got it because you told the joke wrong.
I did get a chuckle out of the notion that Melville was spam poetry though.
One last thing ... I triple double dare you to watch the Saddam (Iraq torture video clip)
I believe Juanita
When I was first skimming today's articles, I
could have sworn Hubble had discovered more patents.
I really need to lay off the caffeine.
How will we ever reach the Moon and eventually Mars if we're too afraid to launch a Space Shuttle mission to fix the Hubble?
We have a viable space system gathering dust because of a paralyzing fear that something might go wrong on another shuttle mission. Do you think Russia, China, even India are holding their collective breaths waiting for us to make a decision on our space program?
The Apollo fire proved that from crippling failure success can be born. We picked ourselves up, analyzed what went wrong and forged ahead. The crew of Columbia were well aware of the risks of space flight and took those risks willingly.
We've mourned long enough, it's time to fix what's wrong and honor the memories of Columbia by renewing meaningful space science again without fear.
Indian astrologers here are wondering if it is a welcome incursion into that "evil-eyed" planet. Saturn - or Shani in Indian astrological parlance - is considered a powerful influence by Hindu astrologers, who draw up horoscopes on the basis of planetary configurations. Soothsayers, palmists and pundits are busy poring over their theories to gauge what the consequences could be, with some predicting a catastrophe. Referring to the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft ring its engine into Saturn's atmosphere, astrologer Ajay Gautom says "He(man) should not even attempt to build such enmity with nature and, least of all, with such powerful planets." . He said many recent disasters around the world, for instance a devastating earthquake in Iran, were linked to such efforts by man.
Heck, if the reason they won't send a shuttle to service Hubble is that one shuttle isn't safe, then spend $1,000,000,000 and send two. I am serious. The Hubble is worth $1,000,000,000.
You got something against pretty pictures? Pretty pictures are inspirational. Pretty pictures that let someone who is not hugely scientifically literate stare deep into the awe-inspiring Universe we live in, and share the sense of wonder with us geeks? It seems like an excellent idea. The public paid for it. Why not continue sharing that sense of wonder with the whole World?
So, no, I don't think it a low-brow love of awe-inspiring pictures is sad at all.
During the middle ages they built huge, beautiful, monumental cathedrals. Ordinary people paid for them too. They took decades to build. But they too let ordinary people share in a sense of awe and wonder.
.. Hubble Discovers a Hundred New Patents ?
"Illusion of Truth" should be required viewing in public schools... probably the whole series... that would give people some hope and morals!