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Astronomers Announce 5-Planet System
An anonymous reader writes "Astronomers have detected a record-breaking 5th planet orbiting the star 55 Cancri, 41 light years distant. This planet orbits within the 'habitable zone,' where water could presumably exist, but it's probably another gas giant like Saturn, so any liquid water would have to be on a moon. There's still a big gap between this planet and the outermost planet where no planets have been detected yet, so there could yet be a rocky planet in the system. The lead researcher said he's optimistic that 'continued observations will reveal a rocky planet within five years.'"
When I first saw this headline, I gasped. They already eliminated Pluto - what ELSE could they disqualify!?
"The lead researcher said he's optimistic that 'continued observations will reveal a rocky planet within five years.'" Sylvester Stallone commented on this breaking news; "Eh?"
Our solar system has more then that...
What Record did this break? The number of planets detected in a single (extrasolar) system record? That shouldn't be too hard considering we're probably missing over half of the extrasolar planets with our current detection threshold. I mean, this is certainly interesting, but by no means surprising. We should be detecting systems with more and more planets every year as we begin to detect smaller and smaller planets.
There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
by the sounds of it, the wobble on this thing is just a mess- probably a lot like what our solar system's wobble looks like from the outside.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Imagine astronomers found a whole lot of earth like planets.
Imagine they even found one that seemed to have artificial satellites.
After years of observing and improving our telescopes, imagine we managed to image the planet itself and saw a civilization much like our own.
Glorious times we live in huh?
Imagine after much observation we found lots of these civilized neighbors out there in the black.
Imagine we tried to send them signals and waited the many years for a reply.
What if none came?
After hundreds of years of knowing we were not alone we came to the inescapable realization that just communicating with other intelligent beings in our galaxy is so hard and takes so long that it may never be achieved.
Wormholes and warp drives and ark ships.. what if it is all an unattainable dream?
Thankfully, I like to dream.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
brought to you by citizens for jokes about uranus
At least after we send our greeting, it will take 2 or 3 generations for the extermination fleet to arrive....
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
First we're told that there are nine planets in our system. Then we're told that there's ten. Then we're told that Pluto and the rest don't count. Then we're told that there's not even a scientific definition of a planet, so technically there's none in our system. Now we're told that some distant star has five planets. That's more than we have!
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
First contact with the Vulcans will not be possible.
Only if Chewbacca lives there . . .
So we can Stargate there
I already assume SETI takes finds like these into account when listening. However, is there a program around who's not intent to just listen? What if we developed a database of systems most likely to contain life, and we started a program to send the top candidates high powered radio signals. Far fetched, but maybe it'll produce some results in 100 years.
from any one of those planets to ours... at the risk of offending the "human-colonisation-of-space" brigade, a great exercise is to try making some sort of scale representation. Like, if earth is as far from the sun as the size of a grain of sugar, how far away is this system? Hmmm, well, if we're 12 light-minutes from the sun (forgive me if I got that wrong, it's been a long time), and the parent star is 41 light years away, is that like... next door? next town? next country? Anyone?
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
The discovery of an earth-like rocky planet is always five years off.
However, at least we stand a good chance of being alive when the discovery is made. (Madly knocking wood)
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Does anyone know how far our strongest radio signals have gone in the galaxy? I'm thinking of the movie Contact, where they stated that the opening of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin produced the first signal with a strength capable of being detected at greater distances. Is this true? And if it is, how far has that signal gone so far?
A gas giant with habitable moons. Only 41 LY away, it can't be as remote as Dantooine.
AUGAUUUGCGCACAUAUCUCAGCGAAUGAAAGGGAUUAA
Astronomers have discovered a record-breaking fifth planet around the nearby star 55 Cancri, making it the only star aside from the sun known to have five planets.
Not to nitpick, but just so people don't go away thinking there are only 5 planets in our solar system, the sun in fact, has 8 planets currently.
(if you include Sedna and Xena)
http://www.netwhatever.com/astrodownunder/2005/09/26/nine-ten-eleven-how-many-planets/
Extrasolar planet refers to any planet beyond our solar system, not beyond our galaxy.
The Milky Way galaxy (ours) contains ~200 billion stars, each one a potential solar system.
Obligatory wikipedia article listing some of the discovered extrasolar planets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet
oh but this is neat,
if you use english units and assume that 1 AU = 1 inch,
then you get (1 inch / 1 au) * 41 light years = 40.9 miles,
which is kinda convenient !
ie,
if AUs are Inches, just change Light Years to Miles.
Quick, someone set up them a bomb!
This planet orbits within the 'habitable zone,' where water could presumably exist, but it's probably another gas giant like Saturn, so any liquid water would have to be on a moon. There's still a big gap between this planet and the outermost planet where no planets have been detected yet, so there could yet be a rocky planet in the system.
Rocky planets are usually found closer to the star than the gas giants - the heat from the the young star will make lighter elements evaporate, you see. So if this planet is a gas giant, it is not likely that they will find a rocky planet in the gap. Fortunately liquid water doesn't have to be on a rocky surface, there are such things as clouds. On the other hand, one thing that does seem to be important for the development of life as we know it is plate tectonics. Perhaps something with a similar effect could exist in the atmosphere of a gas planet.
First, some niggling:
SETI is analogous to physics, biology, geology, etc. The Seti Institute is an organization that does SETI research. They do non-SETI research too, and there are other organizations that also do SETI research.
Now, in answer to your musings:
Yes, SETI investigations prioritize these things. They've done so since before the birth of the acronym "SETI". The first systematic investigation was a project called Ozma (see here, sorry it's a mere stub: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Ozma/). The stars it observed were chosen because they are similar to our sun and are relatively close to us. Carl Sagan's snidely understated report: "The results were negative."
SETI research is operates with VERY limited funding. It hasn't received any federal funding in the USA since the early 1990s, operating on private donation since then while a few professional academicians from various state-funded universities oversee research and rely on historical arrangements for scope time. They have no choice but to be frugal in building equipment and using it in their search.
"is there a program around who's not [content?] to just listen?"
Not a systematic one (to my knowledge), but listening first is an optimal strategy since we're not made of money down here on Earth:
A) It's a good bet than any civilization out there is significantly more technologically advanced than we (we've only just developed radio astronomy). Therefore, signs of technological activity are bound to be visible at a nearby star (5~50 light years as you suggest, but further is feasible). How? As an example, Earth is about as bright a radio source as our sun itself, thanks to human technological activity. Radio civilizations stick out like sore thumbs. Therefore, observing is a better first step than messaging.
B) Ideally, we would send a signal isotropically (all directions) in order to broadcast our presence to as many stars as possible. Even if we had "More" energy (but not "Lots"), our signal would be extinct long before it reached the nearest star in most directions. If we had "Lots" of energy, no problems. But, we can't devote "Lots" or even "More" energy to sending messages right now, so we have to choose our expenditures judiciously anyway. We can already send and receive signals over hundreds of light years with presently operational equipment. Know how many F2 through K5 stars are within 1000 light years of us? WAY more than we can message! Therefore, we can get results only if we choose the correct (i.e. communicative) targets among the prohibitively large number of stars within our range.
Of course, we have to balance our frugality with the practical fact that SOMEONE has to break the ice. After all: what happens if every civilization only listens?
It may be impossible to travel to other stars, but we don't know that for certain. We have to try, and then declare it impossible.
If there is a way to travel to other stars though, it would be the greatest thing ever happened to mankind.
"Could they hear it? Only if they have invested in VERY sensitive receivers MUCH more sensitive then anything we have. Our current receivers could only hear a signal if it were from a very powerful beacon aimed right at us. We do not currently have a system [that] could detect our own signals if they were coming from another star."
Actually, Earth is roughly as bright in these parts of the radio spectrum as the sun is. We certainly can detect these signals at interstellar distances with our present technology. The noise temperature of our equipment (masers specifically) wasn't good enoug 40 years ago, but it has improved dramatically. The noise floor today is in the single digit Kelvins, which is good enough to detect our isotropic TV transmissions against background radiation (nowadays louder than the instrument noise!) at interstellar distances.
Our detection capability has improved a lot in its first 50 years. Since we're new at this radio astronomy thing, any potential listener will fall on the "newexperienced" interval in the middle, on average, which is much closer to the experienced end than we are now. It is very likely that any such listener will, in fact, have much greater detection capabilities than we do, and ours are already good enough at relevant interstellar distances.
I think your experience with signal theory is shaky or nonexistent. Why do you claim these things as fact? You must KNOW you're not an expert on the subject, nor even a knowledgeable amateur, and that as much would be obvious. The world would be a better place if fewer conjectures were presented as if they were facts.
We should not overlook the importance of moons. Large planets often have large moons. Look at our own system. Now we see other systems of multiple planets. It is now seen by astronomers that multiplanet systems are the usual result of star formation, as debris left over from that original concentration and accretion event accumulate their own various planetary centers, sweep out their orbits and settle down just like our own system did. It is quite possible that an exosolar planetary system's Jupiters and Saturns will have their own Europas and Titans and have them in numbers. Many of these, moons of large Jupiter like planets or failed brown dwarves, will be liquid water planets of earth size in the star's goldilocks zone yet be classed as 'moons' simply because of where they are found. It is possible that a brown dwarf, far from the central star, may generate enough heat on its own to warm to habitability one of its large moons in a location few would care to look.
i'll say right off the bat i have no idea what i'm talking about, so this idea could be really silly. So, that out of the way: Would it be possible to build floating stations/ships on/in a gas giant? What would be involved? Would it be useful? Too dangerous?
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