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Solar System Look-Alike Found
SpuriousLogic writes "Astronomers have discovered a planetary system orbiting a distant star which looks much like our own. They found two planets that were close matches for Jupiter and Saturn orbiting a star about half the size of our Sun. Martin Dominik, from St Andrews University in the UK, said the finding suggested systems like our own could be much more common than we thought."
But wait! I'm the one with the goatee. Does that mean I'm the evil one???
I'm sorry, I have trouble whenever whenever an astronomer suggests that something they found "may be much more common than we thought." One observation does not mean way more common. It jumps the gap from "purely theoretical" to "proven possible", and in the data set of the known universe really isn't enough to make any type of assertion about commonality.
Yes, I know, our solar system makes it two.
We found a solar system that is kinda, sorta like ours in two of the planets, and we are "on the brink" of discovering more. Get the space RVs warmed up!
I heard you can buy a two bedroom rancher on its earth-like planets for only $15000. Of course, the commute is killer.
for the SETI crowd to point their antennas to.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
... "At least planetary systems like ours might be more common than previously thought over that direction, 5,000 years ago, at around the distance from us that light would take 5,000 years to get here. Or maybe somebody's holding up a distorted mirror 2,500 light years away. We're not really sure. Some scientist said we're discovering more than we used to, now that we're confident that we can detect them and bother looking. That must mean the spike in data is representative."
/. geek. I doubt, though, that thinking in general about the number of multi-planet systems has changed drastically because of this one system. Like most science reporting in the mainstream press, this is oversimplified and overhyped.
I'm looking hopefully forward to giving people directions by system name and planet number just as much as the next
I read the article earlier, and then it had that the star was 5 light years away. I investigated, and it is actually 4900 light years away.
I'm impressed that they could resolve two planets going around a star that far away, gravitational lensing or not.
Here's the original from February 14 :
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/14/223241
jdb2
I am impressed, but I'll be much more impressed when techniques are developed that can spot rocky Earth-type planets.
Years later, a doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48, and am what some people call "mentally retarded".
I really hope we're the evil ones, because if we're the nice ones.....whew! We're in trouble. Of course there's a chance that Kodos and Kang have enslaved all of them.
I am new 'round these parts, but in my short time of observation I've begun to think that slashdot editors are really a conglomeration of various AI designed to fool us all into thinking they are real people just posting dupes over and over and over again. It's like a very messed up Turing test!
:(
Bearing this in mind things become a little more bearable.
Say nothing of the kind.
In our post-modern universe, we're all morally equivalent for a while, and then we die.
You laugh now....
While we all crack wise about the bizarro planet of our science fiction dreams, it bears pointing out that the point of the program is ostensibly to find other inhabitable planets--that is, potential sites for future human expansion, rather than other inhabited planets. The difference between the two is not insignificant, and is a nod to the somewhat conservative view that while it may prove impossible to find another planet like the Earth where life has evolved concurrently with our own, it is nevertheless very realistic to search for another planet like the Earth where life could thrive.
If your the one with goatse... Yes, you are the evil one.
Ohhhh! goatEE. Never mind.
"could be much more common than we thought". They come in every astronomy news feature in which scientists discover a new anything.
How do we know scientists didn't just get lucky and find the only other solar system similar to ours in the entire universe?
If we do find a planet there that is earth like. If we could get there. Should we go there and take it over?
No, as long as your counterpart has got a goatse on his face instead.
Your head a splode
Our first test of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development!
Thank you.
My web domain.
This solar system looks like ours, but it's only half our size.
My theory is that we're both evil (like Doctor Evil and Mini-Me).
A solar system with similar features to our own eh? Darl...?
AT&ROFLMAO
...when they can spot a planet that has an ocean of liquid water on it.
good or evil, they will be our midget mirror counterparts-their solar system being approximately half the size and all
Using that microlensing technique, and knowing that we can detect a Saturn in a twin solar system 5,000 light years away, how close would a star have to be for us to be able to detect an Earth?
You just got troll'd!
Caprica? Because if so I am going to be crapping out Rubiks cubes.
so the odds of finding another solar system like ours is now what, 2 in a billion, instead of 1? finding two similar features does not constitute a pattern...
This solar system being much like our own could develop nuclear weapons within the next 3-5 years. I think the only answer is a Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Production must begin immiedately.
"I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian."
Won't they be embarassed when they discover the giant flat mirror floating halfway between us and the "similar-looking" system.
Your equation is waiting... ...for some coefficients.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Awesome, I was starting to worry I might not be able to tell them apart if I got drunk and wandered into the wrong one. How awkward would that be? "Sorry, I thought you were the evil version of my neighbor's wife, my mistake."
Earth lawyers sue for copying the "look and feel" of the solar system.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
We should sue for copyright infringement.
then the system isn't all that like ours. It may be better than any other one so far... but that's far from okay. Let's hope they'll be able to stop with the B.S. press releases and give us some real good news one of these days.
Nah, a goatee used to make you look evil, but now only makes you look like a disaffected member of generation X.
Until we can detect planets in the mass range of Earth, I don't think there is any point in speculating about the prevailance of systems that might support life in a carbon-based, water-saturated ecology like Earth.
This is sort of offtopic, but I have a different perspective on any of these reports of Sol-like systems.
;-)
Given our current detection technology, how far away could an alien observer be and still be able to
1) Detect Sol
2) Detect rocky planets within Sol's habitable zone, specifically at least one of Earth's dimensions.
3) Determine the composition of one of those planets to be composed of organic chemistry requisite for life as we know it?
My layman's guess is that that alien observer would have to be absurdly close to us in order to measure these 3 things, even the first two for that matter.
I've wondered about this for quite some time, but don't know enough about the limits of our current detection methods to determine how far away an outside observer could theoretically be and still detect earth at all, much less its chemical composition. Anyone care to enlighten me. I am really curious about this.
My point being, that my layman's guess suggests that by a large margin, there are more points within our galaxy that earth is completely invisible, in respect to our current observation technology. If that is truly the case, then would it be foolish to suggest that the Sol system isn't particularly rare at all? If not, then why is it so special that we've found something that "sort-of" resembles Sol? Big whoop. Get back to me when they've found a place we can actually emigrate to
What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
It turns out we were looking into the wrong end of the telescope. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
if they have the same gods as we do?
MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
Sue them for all they've got, if we let ONE solar system get away with copying our design then soon ALL the solar systems will.
Gen X'er - But ma'am, wouldn't you like to buy some of my homemade cookies for charity to the blind?
Old lady - Shoo! Go away, you filthy slacker, or I'm yelling "rape"!
When will this cruel, pointless discrimination end? And who's the evil mutant in this little parable, eh?
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
Same gods "we" do? There are thousands of religions on earth, some of which have no gods at all. Even the ones that have "a god" often mostly just share the word due to word importation into other languages.
Most religions DO seem to share a common sense of decency though (see the golden rule, for instance) -- at least amongst practitioners who really study that religion (as opposed to sunday-go-to-churchers who just grow up religion and think they know it because their father/grandmother did).
So that would be one of my first questions regarding an alien species -- do they (or any of them) share that same idea of ethics, compassion, selflessness, humility, or reverence for life and the wold around them that we often have? Because if not, and their tech is superior, we're really, really screwed.
Um... little person.
If you, as some researchers do, believe that space is finite and only appears infinite because of a repeating "wrap-around" effect, then you would realize that could be seeing ourselves.
In fact, if this "wrap-around" effect is true, then we should be able to find ourselves an infinite number of times!
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_19_164/ai_110737294
Ooh, ooh, I know this one.
A. March 5th, 2015
B. It's the old lady, right?
The libertarian solution to the failures of capitalism is to apply more capitalism til the failures are fixed.
I wonder if they have plant named Urectum and if they constantly make jokes about changing its name to Uranus.