Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

'Hundreds of Worlds' in Milky Way

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the nothing-to-eat-there-but-roddenberries dept.

Raphael Emportu writes "BBC news is reporting that rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found. New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems. There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe. Future studies of such worlds will radically alter our understanding of how planets are formed, they say."

12 of 334 comments (clear)

  1. Re:sweet by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now to find a way of this rock onto one of those. Just keep typing stuff like of instead of off and leaving out conjunctions like and in between rock and onto and sooner or latter someone around here is sure to get pissed off enough to help you off of this rock. Getting onto one of the others is an entirely different story.
    --
    My blog
  2. Re:Not so Rare Earth by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 3, Funny

    Funny but, I couldn't shake the feeling that the reason conditions here on earth are so 'perfect' for life as we know it was more to do with life as we know it evolving to fit the conditions ... No, no! Can't you see? Earth is incredibly rare! Too rare to be a coincidence. Nope, must've been an Intelligent Designer that created life. Probably about 6,000 years or so ago. Yep.

    Heh. This new information kinda blows a hole in that theory, huh?
    --
    My blog
  3. TFA is confused... by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... there may be hundreds of worlds in the solar system. In the Milky Way, expect trillions. The distinction between the Solar System and the Galaxy is a subtle one, similar to that between a grain of sand and Saudi Arabia, so it's easy for the likes of the BBC to confuse the two.

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  4. Re:Drake Equation by biased_estimator · · Score: 3, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/384/ Sorry, couldn't help myself.

  5. Re:can we make our minds up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    First 9, then posibly 10, then back to 9, then 8.. now we have..
    "Our old view, that the Solar System had nine planets will be supplanted by a view that there are hundreds if not thousands of planets in our Solar System,"

    The first release of Solaris was Solaris 2. This replaced SunOS 4.x. There were a number of Solaris 2.x point releases, with the last being Solaris 2.6. Solaris 7 was released in November, 1998, followed by Solaris 8 in 2000, Solaris 9 in 2002, and Solaris 10 in 2005.

    Although Sun's marketing dept. sometimes comes up with fucked version numbering conventions, the progression is actually quite linear.

  6. And all of them are ours by barzok · · Score: 3, Funny

    except Europa. I'll not be attempting any landings there.

  7. Re:Not so Rare Earth by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    This new information kinda blows a hole in that theory, huh?

    Yes, but His Spaghettiness is most forgiving. May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage forever. Hang on, that sounds a bit like icky things Japanese do with tentacles... oh second thoughts...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  8. Re:Well, it's nice to have a destination... by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    And to be intelligent on top of that. That barrier is so high that most humanity never got to surpass it.
  9. Re:sweet by RicardoGCE · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm all for shipping grammar nazis off to the most distant rock available.

    By the way, it's "later", not "latter" ;)

  10. Re:Well, it's nice to have a destination... by rucs_hack · · Score: 3, Funny

    And have caek

  11. Re:Well, it's nice to have a destination... by DirkGently · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wish I could meta-mod so I could bitch-slap the guy that gave you a +1 insight.

    --

    I keep trying to pick fights, but I can't shake this Excellent karma.

  12. the wonder by cpricejones · · Score: 3, Funny

    Think of all the stargates ...