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."

6 of 334 comments (clear)

  1. No shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No shit that there are other planets like ours out there. The incomprehensibly massive scale of the universe dictates it to be true, statistically-speaking.

    Today, children receive next to no education in the field of astronomy. Were they to have a proper understanding of what lies beyond Pluto, they'd probably grow up to realize how silly it is to believe that there is only one planet like Earth.

    1. Re:No shit. by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Imagine we discover: That the chance of a star to have planets is one in a million. Doesn't seem impossible, does it? The chance of a star with planets to have one at the correct distance (taking star heat in consideration) to be between 0 and 100 C, one in a billion. The chance of a planet in the correct position to have water. One in a million.

      Point 1: very long odds, given the number of extrasolar planets we've already discovered.
      Point 2: extremely long odds. It's a reasonably wide zone for the Sun, from about halfway between Earth and Venus out to Mars - which would probably be inhabitable if it were larger and could hold a thick atmosphere. Moreover the zone will shift as the star evolves and brightens, so a planet that starts out frozen may spring to life in later years. Come the red giant phase even Titan might bear life.
      Point 3: totally redundant. It just repeats point 2, but for some reason does so with a probability greater by a factor of one thousand. Counting the same criterion twice just to get the numbers down by a factor of a million is cheating.

      So, we still have nine planets. Now, cross your fingers that one of those is not radioactive, doesn't show the same side to the star (that happens quite often), is big enough to have enough gravity to hold an atmosphere, etc.

      How do you know that tidally locked planets are commonplace? There are none in our system.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  2. Well, it's nice to have a destination... by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now, if we only had some means of reaching it...

    The speed of light is a barrier like few the humanity has ever found.

  3. Not so Rare Earth by sgbett · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Interesting, considering that just last night I was watching a documentary, on BBC4 no less, about rare earth theory and how miraculous it was that the conditions on earth are as they are.

    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 ...

    --
    Invaders must die
  4. Re:Aquatic life? by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldn't it be feasible that intelligent life could arise on a planet that is liquid?

    Our own earthly cephalopods are pretty darned smart. Given the right conditions, it's not difficult to imagine a similar species attaining greater intelligence. Of course, such an intelligence, having developed in such an alien environment, would be radically different from ours. As Larry Niven says, there are brains out there that think just as well as yours...but differently.

    Also, although an aquatic species could conceivably develop intelligence, I can't imagine what form its technology would take. With such elementary things as fire denied to them, it's doubtful that they could progress to any reasonable level.

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  5. Re: bad guess by Jeremy_Bee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I disagree. I understand the argument you are trying to make, but your "1 in a million" suggestions are really more akin to wild stabs at the biggest number you can think of, than they are reasonable guesses. 1:1000000 is really an unusually small ratio, and not as common as you intimate. It certainly has no actual relation to the situations that present themselves in the formula.

    You can't simply spout a bunch of hyperbole and expect to be taken seriously. Especially in reply to an article that attempts to actually determine those numbers and percentages based on facts. This kind of talk is really no different from the comedy statement that "90% of people know that you can prove anything with statistics." It's meaningless.

    While we will likely have to wait a whole lot longer for meaningful answers to the Drake equation, attempts at putting fact-based numbers on the variables should be applauded, and discounting them with what amounts to emotional hyperbole should be discouraged IMO.