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First Earth-Sized Exoplanet May Have Been Found
Adam Korbitz writes "New Scientist is reporting the extrasolar planet MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb — whose discovery was announced just last summer — may actually be the first truly Earth-sized exoplanet to be identified. A new analysis suggests the planet weighs less than half the original estimate of 3.3 Earth masses; the new estimate pegs the planet's size at 1.4 Earth masses. The planet orbits a small red dwarf star, some 3,000 light-years from here, at an orbital distance of 0.62 astronomical units, about the same distance as Venus from our sun. One significance of the planet's discovery is that it points to the probable ubiquity of smaller terrestrial planets in somewhat Earth-like orbits around red dwarf stars, the oldest and most numerous stars in the galaxy. Here is a video report from the discoverers."
I'm all about getting the hell out of here!
it got plutoed http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=plutoed
doh. highly uninhabitable.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
This must be the first Slashdot post with a GNAA subject line that's been modded "informative" in years.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
If you are familiar with the work of L. Ron Hubbard's group in OT8, you would be aware that not only should Earth-like planets exist but that a significant number of them are older, and potentially more advanced than we are. This might then lead you to explore whether or not the Marcab Confederacy (form of civilization significantly more advanced that our own exist.) And indirectly to an understanding that extremely advanced stellar civilizations have very different Body Thetans (or Operating Thetans) from our own. Thus the detection of an earth-like planet is not that significant. The detection of a star going dark, signaling a civilization making an R5-Implants to an R6-Implants transition -- now that would be interesting.
you would be aware that not only should Earth-like planets exist but that a significant number of them are older
Haha, foolish human. Everybody knows that Earth holds the record for the oldest planet at a 6000 years.
I record my sleeptalking
But the doctor says I can't have iced tea. He said nothing about the rest.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Irony
I record my sleeptalking
Don't give me any of that 'Star Trek' crap. It's too early in the morning.
Bloody smeg head.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
This must be the first Slashdot post with a GNAA subject line that's been modded "informative" in years.
That's because all the new heres thought GNAA is the crossover interest organization of their dreams: the GNU Astronomy Association.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb ain't LV-426. If you know what I mean...
That's not our system!
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Or these colonists... let's call them 'pilgrims'... will become so in touch with deep space that they will be able to fly without the need for a nav computer.
Later a civil war will break out only to be interrupted by a viscous race of aliens bent on universal domination.
So a race of thick gooey beings is going to dominate the universe? What happens when you freeze them? Do they turn into popsicles?
Or duke nukem forever.
The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
Ah, but the volume of an object increases as a cube, so if we increase the sphere so that the increase in the radius is 3, that would increase the volume by 27. Since we want to have a surface gravity similar to earth, that would mean the density of the planet to be about 2.04. (mass increases by 10, volume increases by 27, density of the earth is approximately 5.52)
Interestingly, that is very close to the range of the bone density of many animals, so the answer is obvious. We need to find the skeletal remains of a spherical space whale that is 3 times the size of the earth, and immigrate there.
Of course, with my luck, it would already be inhabited and I would be put to work in the calcium mines.