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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.
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
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.
I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
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).
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!"
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.