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Hubble Discovers a Hundred New Planets

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the space-real-estate dept.

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."

2 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Too bad... by presarioD · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The shuttle incident really caused problems in space explorations

    Actually it wasn't the shuttle incident that killed Hubble. It was the "War on TerrrrrrrAr" and the need to send a Man on Mars for the glory of the Greatest Nation of the Galaxy (and that's about it!)...

    I am too lazy to provide the necessary links for that, it's still early in the morning...

    --
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  2. Re:Too bad... by nwbvt · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    " He is saying as an astronomer that Hubble is worthwhile for science. "

    Saying it can see things that other telescopes cannot is far from being "worthwhile", especially with a half billion price tag.

    "You are bitching about money. "

    Guess what? Money is important.

    "You said Hubble was outdated, he proved you wrong in pointing out some technologically advanced aspects of the telescope."

    Thats far from saying the whole thing isn't outdated. It was designed 30 years ago and made to last 15 years, huge advancements have been made then.

    "He pointed out that other telescopes can't do the work of Hubble, and it isn't even close. "

    There are a nearly infinite number of possible research areas we can look at. Guess what? We can't fund them all. Instead we have to pick and choose which to fund and which to drop. Thats life, get used to it. Whining whenever funding stops for one little program that in reality has very little benefit for humanity (compare looking at distant stars to decoding the genome or curing cancer) is not a good way to go through life.

    "How are you supposed to orbit a massive telescope in space for free?" We can't. Thus we have to drop the program in favor of other programs.

    Here is the problem. I think I said this exact same thing in my last post. You are only looking at the potential benefits of Hubble. Those need to be compared to the costs. Your failure to do so only shows you to be a little closed-minded person.

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    Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.