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Recently Discovered Habitable World May Not Exist
sciencehabit better let Greg Dean know that "Two weeks ago, U.S.-based astronomers announced the discovery of the first Goldilocks planet circling another star: just the right size and just the right temperature to harbor alien life. But yesterday at an exoplanet meeting in Turin, Italy, Switzerland-based astronomers announced that they could find no trace of the prized planet in their observations of the same planetary system."
Neither did Goldilocks, the kid.
Table-ized A.I.
Aliens stole the planet because they noticed us eyeing it and that we're already wrecking the one we have...
New scientific term
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
quantum planet?
and cloaked the planet!
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Uhh ohh, I think the earthlings are looking our way, quick hide!!
Crap they saw us. Keep hiding maybe they'll go away.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Glad this story came up before we launched a probe for a 400,000 year flight. Wow would that have been a letdown.
They were just using the star as a place to build it.
now that they are done, they are going to move it to a new location.
call it a mobile home.
For that off-topic rant, we are going to send you to that planet. If by chance it's not really there, too bad. Bring a jacket.
Table-ized A.I.
Their planet was cleared to make way for an interstellar highway. They should have visited the local planning office!
Be relentless!
It was blocking my view of Venus-47, so I removed it. -Marvin
Table-ized A.I.
Obi-Wan: I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
That doesn't really sound like Carl Sagan at all.
Sounds like a clever ruse to hoard Unobtainium if I've ever heard one.
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
This is the third time a "habitable" planet was discovered in the Gliese system that turned out to be not so habitable, if it exists at all.
Great going.
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
Well it looks like the U.S. astronomers used two sets of data gathered from different time periods for their analysis. Meanwhile, the Swiss astronomers used a third set of data gathered over a different time period for their analysis. I would think the first thing that should be done would be to swap data sets. Have the U.S. astronomers run their analysis on the Swiss data set with their tools, and have the Swiss astronomers run their analysis on the U.S. data sets with their tools. After all is said and done, compare the results yielded by each data set. If only the U.S. astronomers are finding the gravitational wiggles, then it means that either their tools are inducing some kind of experimental error, or the Swiss tools are missing some critical component. At which point the tools and methods between the two groups should be compared and contrasted to observe differences.
If, however, U.S. analysis of the Swiss data sets similarly yields a no planet result, and Swiss analysis of U.S. data sets yields a planet exists result, then you can conclude that the problem is in the data, and not the analysis being done. So, the moral of the story to both teams is to send their data to each other. For bonus points, both parties can publish all of their data so that a few third parties can conduct their own analysis. This is what science is all about after all folks!
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
Clearly the Romulans have vastly improved their cloaking technology, and do not appreciate our feeble attempts at espionage.
Yeah, if Carl Sagan were alive, he'd say
"HELP!!! GET ME OUT OF THIS BOX!!! IT IS SO DARK AND COLD!!!! HELP!!!!"
(stupid lameness filter) Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
It's obviously a quantum planet!
... you've got some 'splainin' to do.
Give me a break. They found out we spotted their planet so they decided to cloak it. Cloaked planets are a common thing, ask any starship captain.
I think they can be justifiably proud of this technological terror they've constructed.
Really, Obi-Wan? You lost another one?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
using only there own unpublished data set can't fin'd the planet.
OK. Nothing really changed here. They needed to do more research to confirm the data. They still need t do that.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You forgot to check the box for "Anonymous Coward."
I love how on Slashdot a correction of a Star Wars quote gets modded informative. wait, no i don't. nobody gives a shit
Maybe it moved. Did they try looking outside the Goldilocks zone, where Gliese 581h used to be?
Don't gimme that, "Mary", we got pictures of you at that party. The one we showed your wife when you didn't pay is posted over at http://www.goatse.cx/ .
You didn't pay again this month, now everyone can see the depth of your situation.
}O{
You're looking in the wrong century! Y'know, light-speed travel, space-time relativity, and all that. Try turning your observatory telescopes a fraction of a degree...thattaway. There. That's where the light appears to be coming from now.
"It's not on the charts... what's going on?"
"Our position is correct, except... no Goldilocks..."
"What do you mean? Where is it?"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, kid. It ain't there."
Hiding planets would also be in character for Larry Niven's Puppeteers, if they had the technology to do so.
It's a space station.
That's a Battle Station!
If that where true, you wouldn't have replied. clearly you do care.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You're a clueless prick.
I wish the amount of letters someone could type in a reply was based on whether or not the person read anything past the head line. That I would never see this nonsense again. Not that i expect much from someone who calls themselves a 'windows expert'.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That's no planet, it's a space station!
Thats what I'm trying to tell you, kid. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away.
GALACTUS APPROACHES!
and also, the 'fantastic 4: rise of the silver surfer' remastered-3d version is set to debut to the general populous in about 400,000 years.
I don't want to look on this as the moment where those damn neutrals won the new space race.
Discovering new habitable planets while seemingly not researching ways to get us there is kind of like going to a whorehouse with no money. You usually end up very pissed off that all you could do is look.
Prioritization usually has value. This would be no exception.
Sounds like the plot of Peter F. Hamilton's novel Pandora's Star. Basically a Star being observed by an astronomer goes goes out suddenly, it turns out it was enveloped in a solar-system sized impenetrable black barrier. Some alien entity did so to wall-in a potentially dangerous civilization intent on expanding to other systems. In this case the planet may have been sealed off.
Now given this star system is 20 light years aware they must not have liked something they saw in our leaked radio or TV from 1980, been deeply offended and immediately dispatched their interstellar battle fleet. Cue dyson barrier locking them down.
It may have been the original Battlestar Galactica, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080221/
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Well, moving the planet out of the solar system effectively hid it. Who looks for a habitable planetin interstellar space? The real question is there they got the trillions of stars to purchase the reactionless drives from the Outsiders that let them accelerate the 6 planets to .9c...
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
It could be this.
If your data set resolves down to 1x10E-16 and their data set resolves down to 1x10E-12, the 1x10E-12 data is obviously not going to yield the same findings. It's going to miss a lot of detail, and perhaps be useless when run through your analysis process. Such a thing could be an issue with the scales involved, but whether or not that's the case - who knows?
"Sir, about that planet, we've detected a flash of light."
"Captain, are you telling me they're testing nucular bombs?"
"No sir, just a flash of l--"
"Do you have any idea what the public will do when they discover the aliens are testing WMDs and we have no plan for dealing with them?"
"Sir, I was mistaken. There was no flash of light."
"Not good enough, captain."
"Sir, I was mistaken. There was no planet."
"That's more like it."
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Heres the thing, I am NOT gay. Im STRAIGHT but you dont see me going around advertising it.
Unfortunately, we do.
Bring a towel, you mean...
Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.
from Global Warming scientists and fabricated data to suit their pre-formed conclusions.
We finally found the planet of precise timekeeping, highly secure banking, immaculate knives and good-ass chocolate and they put out a report denying its existence. Touche, aliens.
Even if it does exist, who would want to go there after reading this:
average temperature between minus 24 and minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31 to minus 12 degrees Celsius). Gliese 581g completes an orbit every 37 days or so.
frozen plus vertigo? no thanks.
That's no moon.
That's Uranus!
The American team used a combined set of observations: One 11-year-long set consisted of 122 measurements made by the team, while the other set was 4.3 years long and consisted of 119 measurements published by the consortium.
[The Swiss group] used only their own observations, but they expanded their published data set from what the U.S. group included in its analysis to a length of 6.5 years and 180 measurements.
So, the American study had 241 observations over at least 11 years and the data is peer reviewed and published. The Swiss apparently are refuting that by ignoring half the data and adding 61 data points from 2.2 years that haven't been peer reviewed. Obviously they're a reputable group, but I'll wait for them to look at *all* of the data available to them, preferably published data, before just taking them at their word. Doubly so for a negative finding since alpha (chance of a false positive) tends to be a lot smaller than beta (chance of a false negative).
It's a faaaaake! :0)
That's okay, after estimating that it has the right temperature and climate to support life, they forget the fact that life doesn't necessarily have to conform to the standards that happen to have come to be on Earth.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
actually not :-B
Of course there was no planet there! The first set of astronomers changed the outcome by observing it!
#DeleteChrome
Shame too, because I was hoping to go on vacation there.
Bibo Ergo Sum.
I swear it was there a minute ago.
In other news, nothing really happened today here on earth either.
so much for 100% chance of it having life
If we did discover a habitable planet mere 20 light years away, I bet that it would be easier to gather funding for research on getting there.
Brought a tear to me eye, there.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
and then you did it anyway, right? :D
mediocrity rules, man
Couple of decades down the road, and Lucas (or his clone) will make an "updated and upgraded" version.
With more aliens saying things like "Whatda..." while driving.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"Who looks for a habitable planetin interstellar space? "
Apparently, we do, frequently enough that we have a common name for these: "extrasolar planets". About 500 discovered so far:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet
AFAIK, we found these way before we started finding exoplanets. Because of their incredible size, they hide way more light than exoplanets. This means we get to see them more clearly as they pass into fields of light we know about. ;)
Exoplanets, to my knowledge, (and I'm an amateur, admittedly) primarily gets detected by their gravitys influence on the star they orbit. While exceptionally large exoplanets DO exist, I'm guessing there's a lot more of the smaller ones, we cannot see or measure, but only mathematically infer (as has been done with the planet the article discusses) based on the gravity fields.
In fact, as I recall from my history class, Gallilei, using his knowledge og gravity and physics, actually inferred the existance of several celestial bodies prior to discovering them. Which makes sense, because if you know what to look for and where, it's a lot easier to find things
Unfortunately the planet got slashdotted and if you look its way an error pops up:
404 Error: Planet Not Found.
The planet you requested was not found.
Did you mean to look at LB4-26? You will be redirected there in five seconds.
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
for us to destroy that planet, too.
Surely you've noticed this guy before? He's a nametroll of Smidge204.
He's been pretty successful at trolling on /. recently, getting lots of responses despite being both wildly off-topic and making no effort to disguise the trolling. Not posting as AC is apparently enough to get other users to respond to even obvious trolls.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Better start watching for guys with shiny flying surfboards.
That's a Space Station!
Greetings Earthlings,
We are the Transcendors. We assume our ambassador Stanley Fulham has prepared you for our arrival.
Obviously we have a PLANET THIEF in gliese 581...
.. just an example of the /. effect on a planet
This aspect of science is not taught enough. Science is only a model, but it is a fantastic and useful model and is constantly being made better. It seems to me that some people feel that using the word model to describe science is some sort of pejorative like the way the uneducated use the word "theory".
One last thing: Sometimes I wonder; "Is that someone's signature? Or do they type that at the end of each post?"
as all the "psychics" who "remote viewed" this new Earth-like planet, and regaled their little corners of the internet with tales of really tall humanoid shaped tree dwellers (yeah, go figure) will now have to back-pedal like mad.
And still, their fans will continue to believe this nonsense.
(/rant)
Planet Jackers hauled it off. It had lots of critters on it. Critters burn good.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You mean they should look at the combined data?
Seeds, Micheal. "Foundations of Astronomy". 4th ed. Page 15:
A scientific model is a mental conception of how something works. We all use models. For example, we might have a model in our minds of how a car works and use this model to make practical decisions about how to start the car on a cold morning. Our model doesn't have to be right to be useful. We may be totally wrong about how the engine works, but our model will probably be useful as long as we don't extend it too far. Of course, if we decide to rebuild our own carburetor, we might discover that our model is no longer adequate for our needs.
A scientific model need not be right, but it must be useful. That is, it must allow us to make useful predictions about how nature works. Scientists use models as mental crutches to help them think about nature. A chemist, for example, thinks of a molecule as little balls linked together with rods. Real molecules are much more complex than this model, but it is almost impossible to think about chemistry without using such a model to visualize molecular structure.
The astronomer's model of the celestial sphere is very helpful, and we can use it to think about the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. We can imagine the way the stars move across the sky, and we can predict the motion of the sky as a whole. Of course, the model is wrong, but as a mental aid to visualizing the motions in the sky, it is very useful within its limitations.
Some scientific models can be systems of mathematical equations expressed in computer programs that mimic the behavior of complex processes-an exploding star, for example. Our imaginations are not capable of numerical precision; such models act as mathematical crutches to help us "imagine" complicated processes with numerical precision.
Scientific models can range from general aids to visualization to mathematical equations that mimic the behaviors of complex systems. In every case, the model helps us think about nature. It doesn't have to be true, but as long as we don't press a model beyond its limitations, it can be tremendously useful. In a sense, scientists are not so much searching for ultimate truths as they are trying to build better and better models of how nature works.
One last thing: Sometimes I wonder; "Is that someone's signature? Or do they type that at the end of each post?"
In a shocking media release from his Mom's basement some other scientist has used this data as proof that the DeathStar does indeed exist and that the Empire is all too real.
Would you guys please quit feeding the trolls?
Free Martian Whores!
That's no moon!
Actually, that was the Skylark of Valeron....
mark
The Swiss found no planet, just an asteroid field and... a small moon.
When we discover a planet due to wobble, can we tell the difference between the mass of the planet, the mass of the planet plus satellites, or the mass of the satellites? Do moons of a planet (even if they're as big as Titan) make much of a difference in the mass of the planet? With a gas giant orbiting in the sweet spot, wouldn't each satellite be another chance for the conditions to be right for life?
No! Alderaan is peaceful! We have no weapons, you can't possibly...
You can only find it when you are not attempting to look for it.
i care because the internet is turning to shit because of people like this, i don't give a shit about what he had to say
Oh, we found a planet...
Sorry, you didnt...
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1821554&cid=33901882 you contradict yourself?
Noone writes jokes in base 13!
Intersteller means between starts as in not near a star, as in interstellar travel. You should read Niven's books, they are quite entertaining.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...