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Kepler Investigator Says 'Galaxy Is Rich In Earth-Like Planets'
astroengine writes "In a recent presentation, Kepler co-investigator Dimitar Sasselov unexpectedly announced news that the Kepler Space Telescope has discovered scores of candidate Earth-like exoplanets. Not waiting for the official NASA press release to announce the discovery, Sasselov went into some detail at the TEDGlobal talk in Oxford, UK earlier this month. This surprise announcement comes hot on the heels of controversy that erupted last month when the Kepler team said they were withholding data on 400 exoplanet candidates until February 2011. In light of this, Sasselov's unofficial announcement has already caused a stir. Keith Cowing, of NASAWatch.com, has commented on this surprise turn of events, saying it is really annoying 'that the Kepler folks were complaining about releasing information since they wanted more time to analyze it before making any announcements. And then the project's Co-I goes off and spills the beans before an exclusive audience — offshore. We only find out about it when the video gets quietly posted weeks later.' Although Sasselov could have handled the announcement better (and waited until NASA made the official announcement), this has the potential to be one of the biggest astronomical discoveries of our time — so long as these Earth-like 'candidates' are confirmed by further study."
can we just start calling them 'M' Class ?
In other news, scientists discover that the universe is full of matter.
You say that as if pissing on each other was bad somehow. :)
>> I would describe these as Earth-size, not Earth-like.
Yeah seriously, and even if they have life on any of these "Earth-like" planets, how many have advanced to our level of sophistication? Without pro-wrestling, advanced snack-cake technology, and those "one quick tip to lose weight" ads on the internet, they have most definitely not achieved "Earth-like" status.
My bet is that the vast majority of those planets have run away from having a habitual environment by turning into planets like Venus or Mars.
So you're suggesting that they have an occasional atmosphere? I don't know. Usually, once a planet gives up its atmosphere habit, it doesn't go back.