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Exoplanet Count Peaks 1,000

astroengine writes "The first 1,000 exoplanets to be confirmed have been added to the Europe-based Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. For the last few weeks, astronomers (and the science media) have been waiting with bated breath as the confirmed exoplanet count tallied closer and closer to the 1,000 mark. Then, with the help of the Super Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP) collaboration, the number jumped from 999 to 1,010 overnight. All of the 11 worlds are classified as 'hot-Jupiters' with orbital periods between 1 day and 9 days."

116 comments

  1. Hmm... by ls671 · · Score: 1

    More like 1000 e19 when the survey is over maybe?

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:Hmm... by TWiTfan · · Score: 1

      No, because it'll be a cold, cold day in hell before I'll admit Rigel-7!

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  2. Flags by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And we still haven't planted a flag in every planes in our solar system.

    I find it sad that humanity stopped expanding as soon as it became a bit hard. And I don't think it's relatively harder now for us to expand than it was a thousand years ago.

    1. Re:Flags by ls671 · · Score: 1

      And we still haven't planted a flag in every planes in our solar system.

      What you just wrote seems inappropriate.

      I find it sad that humanity stopped expanding as soon as it became a bit hard. And I don't think it's relatively harder now for us to expand than it was a thousand years ago.

      It didn't stop, it just got harder to spot for want to be watchers...

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    2. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are most welcome to go plant your flag on Jupiter.

    3. Re:Flags by ls671 · · Score: 0

      Hey AC, are you toying with me?

      I have access to Dice logs, just so you know in advance.

      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4366737&cid=45209721

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    4. Re:Flags by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2

      Nor are we likely to, in the name of Progress, since that really means keeping everyone on the plantation instead of getting off the planet.
      There just aren't any votes to buy off of the Earth, and where is the political power in that?

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    5. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try to plant a flag on gaseous planets.

    6. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Noone wants to plant a flag in Uranus

    7. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you measure expansion as the average of [dist(p1,p2)]^2 over every pair of people on Earth, then you need some pretty extreme migration to remote areas of the world to match just 1 person on the moon.

    8. Re:Flags by ls671 · · Score: 1

      But, but, Uranus is not a planet!

      Sorry, my mistake tuning over the same realty as yours. Here it is Pluto that ain't a planet anymore. Forgive me, I know yeah yeah the Kuiper belt.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    9. Re:Flags by ls671 · · Score: 1

      smartass

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    10. Re:Flags by ls671 · · Score: 0

      mod up please

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    11. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what's so great about planting flags? Scientifically it has no value. It would only be an ego-boost for those who plant the flag. And of course those should be the USA, because they are better than everyone else, right? I guess the USA really need an ego boost so they don't have to face up to the stupidities that religion has led them to commit.

    12. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dumbass

    13. Re:Flags by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      what's so great about planting flags?

      They could plant their dicks in the ground, for as much as I care, as long as they did develop the technology necessary to reach the planet, land, do their business, lift off, come back, and land safely (waiting in orbit for another ship to recover them is ok too).

      The flag is just a little prettier for the media. After all, you're going to do gold plaques to immortalize and commemorate the moment. I'm not sure many people would hang in their walls a golden plaque of an astronaut planting his dick in Mercury.

    14. Re:Flags by ls671 · · Score: 1

      what's so great about planting flags? Scientifically it has no value.

      Agreed.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    15. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it sad that humanity stopped expanding as soon as it became a bit hard. And I don't think it's relatively harder now for us to expand than it was a thousand years ago.

      If I feel particularly adventurous, I can put a boat together and float across the Atlantic ocean. Training helps. Preparation helps. But even a sufficiently motivated peasant could do it, or at least the odds are decent enough that even if a few hundred die, some could make it. It's a few thousand km.

      Let's ignore the fact that even today there are only three space-faring (manned) nations, and they are three giant countries. This is not for lack of want in other parts of the globe. It is not like there were only three ocean-traveling nations a thousand years ago.

      If I felt like going to Jupiter, if I had a big enough rocket, sufficient supplies, oxygen bottles (which was not something anyone had to deal with a thousand years ago), I'd have at least 628,743,036 million km to go.

      It seems slightly harder.

    16. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      than it was a thousand years ago.

      There were people on every "corner" of the globe a thousand years ago. I assume that you prefer your history of a European imperialistic bent?

    17. Re:Flags by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      Reaching space isn't like crossing the Andes or the Atlantic, because those were crossings to hospitable environments. Expanding into space is like Columbus establishing a settlement on the mid-Atlantic rift.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    18. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And we still haven't planted a flag in every planes in our solar system.

      I find it sad that humanity stopped expanding as soon as it became a bit hard. And I don't think it's relatively harder now for us to expand than it was a thousand years ago.

      While space exploration is great and all, we have plenty of problems we need to solve here at home before we spend a lot of money to send someone to a cold rock in space.

    19. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    20. Re:Flags by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      Dumas.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    21. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, different AC... you're just paranoid. Good luck with that.

    22. Re:Flags by ls671 · · Score: 1

      Then, as far as I am concerned, you may be a different AC than the 2 different ACs I was replying to. To make things clearer, that would be 3 different ACs total ;-)

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    23. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "...we have plenty of problems we need to solve here at home before we spend a lot of money to send someone to a cold rock in space."

      What a worthless excuse. We will *always* have plenty of problems. We have always *had* plenty of problems.

      But it's odd, isn't it - or did you fail to notice - how many of those problems went away as we explored and expanded and, yes, conquered.

      Best to get all of our eggs out of this one fragile basket, lest we are overtaken by defeatism: as dangerous as any species-ending weapon, that.

    24. Re: Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are you bragging about having access to Dice's logs?

      The bathrooms won't clean themselves.

    25. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention having to bring air, fuel and food with you. Those are things people on a boat don't need to worry about.

      If something goes wrong on a boat, there are numerous things that can be done to save lives. If something goes wrong on a spaceship, you're dead.

    26. Re: Flags by ls671 · · Score: 1

      Didn't you read my sig?

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    27. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But then how would that AC know that the first two ACs are not the same?

      Of course, if you really had access to the Dice logs, you could figure out for sure. So I call bullshit on that.

    28. Re:Flags by ls671 · · Score: 1

      Poor ACs, please read my sig.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    29. Re: Flags by khallow · · Score: 1

      We have nothing better to do than read your sig. But your sig doesn't show when someone is replying to your post. Next time you're going through the logs, you might want to fix that.

    30. Re:Flags by khallow · · Score: 1

      what's so great about planting flags?

      Among other things, it means you have people in pace so that they can do things like that scientific stuff you seem to value. Even in the classic flag planting exercises of the Apollo program, they never spent more than a few minutes on that. For the later missions, they spent days doing actual science and exploration.

    31. Re: Flags by ls671 · · Score: 1

      I didn't want to mix topics, but next time I talk to that E.S. bastard, I am sure he could do something for me to keep my sig relevant.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    32. Re: Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, can ACs even see your sig? It's default off for people not logged in, no?

    33. Re:Flags by Pino+Grigio · · Score: 1

      Good job you're Anonymous Coward. Presumably you're an Anonymous Coward born before the Cold War too. I would recommend some reading, but I get the feeling you wouldn't be open to that.

    34. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shawshank?

    35. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're so bloody brilliant, you would know that you have to log in to see signatures.

    36. Re:Flags by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      what's so great about planting flags? Scientifically it has no value.

      It could refute the hypothesis that they grow when planted.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    37. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As someone who refuses to make an account, I never once knew slashdot had signatures. I'm glad I don't get to see them. I very rarely agree with signatures in threads/forums/online posts. It's annoying, it takes up space, and it doesn't add to the conversation.

      Proud to be AC.

    38. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea, I was gonna make an account a couple years back, but then I started to notice the continual decline. It's kind of addicting, though, like watching a train wreck, so I lurk.

      And ACs seem to get modded up much more than they used to. Don't know why, though. ...first post?

    39. Re:Flags by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      dunno.. it took quite a while to expand white mans universe through all of americas. such a long while that space age is just a blip.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    40. Re:Flags by Deadstick · · Score: 1

      Where do you plant a flag on a gas giant?

    41. Re:Flags by TWiTfan · · Score: 2

      I find it sad that humanity stopped expanding as soon as it became a bit hard.

      A bit hard? I like that, "a bit hard." As if all we need is a little *gumption* to settle planets with no oxygen, no atmospheric pressure, intense radiation, no water, no soil--all located at distances that would require months, if not years (if not LIGHT YEARS), of travel through the vacuum of space. Yep, just like our explorer forebears, all we need is to toughen up and grow some balls and the other planets will become the new West. Now, if we could just figure out how to live without any of the necessities of human life in an environment that even the toughest bacteria can't survive in.

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    42. Re: Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't see it without logging in. Why, what does it say?

    43. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, Mr. I have access to slashdot logs but don't know how moderation works, I'll help you out. If you have mod points, you get to decide what to moderate up and down. If you don't, don't waste everyone's time posting shit like "mod up please". They know what to do. Now the people with mod points have to waste a few moderating your useless post down. BTW, low scoring posts will not help you get mod points in the future. In conclusion, STFU.

    44. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here it is Pluto that ain't a planet anymore. Forgive me, I know yeah yeah the Kuiper belt.

      Kupier's getting old, I hear he's going to start wearing suspenders.

    45. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dufresne!

    46. Re:Flags by Grismar · · Score: 1

      Shows what you know. And the dolts marking this "Interesting", I suppose.

    47. Re:Flags by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      Doofenshmirtz

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    48. Re:Flags by mcgrew · · Score: 2

      I find it sad that humanity stopped expanding as soon as it became a bit hard. And I don't think it's relatively harder now for us to expand than it was a thousand years ago.

      Dude, you read too much sci-fi and not enough sci-fu. A thousand years ago it was impossible for anyone to visit the Earth's poles, but even they had 1G of gravity and breathable air. No other planet or satellite in the solar system does. We're not talking about thousands of miles to the new world, we're talking millions of miles, in a vacuum, surrounded by intense radiation. And no planet or satellite in the solar system has breathable air.

      And other stars? As impossible for us as going to the moon was for Columbus. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, takes light four years to reach, and you can't go faster than light. And the faster you go the more relative mass you have and the more killing radiation you encounter.

      People wonder why I set "Nobots" ten million years in the future, that's why. We're not terraforming Mars or Venus any time soon, nor are we going to visit other stars. It's still an impossibility, as impossible as it was for Columbus to fly his ship to the moon.

    49. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, it does have a happier ending that way.

    50. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Settle down, Beavis.

    51. Re:Flags by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      Shawshank?

      Either that or A&W Rootbeer.

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      This space unintentionally left blank.
    52. Re:Flags by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      You are most welcome to go plant your flag on Jupiter.

      You can even feel free to plant it in Uranus.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    53. Re:Flags by oreiasecaman · · Score: 1

      Expanding into space is like Columbus establishing a settlement on the mid-Atlantic rift.

      ...except there's no food. Or water. Or air. Or radiation shield from Earth's magnetic field.

      --
      This is a UDP joke, I don't care if you get it or not...
    54. Re:Flags by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      Not above the mid-Atlantic rift, on the happy clappy ocean with air and sun and fishing. On it.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    55. Re:Flags by oreiasecaman · · Score: 1

      Still way more doable than in outer space IMO

      --
      This is a UDP joke, I don't care if you get it or not...
    56. Re:Flags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AlphaWolf_HK probably does. What say he?

  3. Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Peaks" by KernyKat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To say the the count "peaks" suggests to me that the count has reached as high as it will go... which is nonsense!

  4. "Peaks"? by Sockatume · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are we expecting it to go down, and are the Vorlons or the Shadows responsible?

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    1. Re:"Peaks"? by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      Are we expecting it to go down, and are the Vorlons or the Shadows responsible?

      Whoever signed the Hyperspace Highway Development Plan 67-A-8437 is responsible. The Vogon construction fleet is just following that plan and can under no circumstance be held responsible.

    2. Re:"Peaks"? by ameen.ross · · Score: 1

      I'm sure they meant "tops 1000". Or should it be "1000, tops"?

      --
      $(echo cm0gLXJmIC8= | base64 --decode)
    3. Re:"Peaks"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess we could write "exceeds 999" or "tops 999". To use 1000 we need an English word for "reaches or exceeds".

    4. Re:"Peaks"? by Sockatume · · Score: 2

      Crosses, breaks, passes, beats, bests, surpasses...

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    5. Re:"Peaks"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now we just need to get some of those included in English...!

    6. Re:"Peaks"? by khallow · · Score: 1

      To use 1000 we need an English word for "reaches or exceeds".

      Clearly unpossible.

  5. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    So you're saying your mental age peaked at two months?

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  6. Headline is misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Peaks" implies that we are at a time between an increasing exoplanet count and a decreasing exoplanet count. I highly doubt that is the case.
    It would be better to use "stagnates at" if one wants to imply that we are approaching a maximum. If we are just talking about an arbitrary milestone for an ever increasing value it should have been "Exoplanet Count Reaches 1,000".

    In other news half empty and half full are not equal and which one is most optimistic depends on the desired final state.
    Very few "synonyms" are really synonymous and you should never use them to diversify your language since this leads to misunderstandings and unintentional lies.

    1. Re:Headline is misleading by ls671 · · Score: 0

      Peaks are a matter of point of view.

      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4366765&cid=45210017

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    2. Re:Headline is misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that the exoplanet count never reached 1,000 since it jumped from 999 to 1,010. Back to English school.

    3. Re:Headline is misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AC here, would you like to clarify? English isn't my native language and according to the dictionary definitions I can find "reaches" would work just fine here.
      Does it have something to do with having to be the exact amount? In that case I'm pretty sure that there was a time during counting that the actual number was exactly 1,000, even if that number never was published.

    4. Re:Headline is misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you have any other reference for that? Linking to you own post doesn't really bring any more credibility that your stand-alone post and seems pretty pointless.

    5. Re:Headline is misleading by ls671 · · Score: 1

      Do you have any other reference for that?

      Nope you have to look to look into yourself and decide if you take my words for it. Interesting challenge, isn't it?

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    6. Re:Headline is misleading by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      I suspect he's dealing with the thorny philosophical issue of whether a property, increasing from one value to another, inherently transitions through all the intermediate values.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    7. Re:Headline is misleading by khallow · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure why you're complaining. He provided a citation. That makes it scientific!

    8. Re:Headline is misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I already did and decided that you are wrong. It wasn't that interesting, I have dealt with trolls before.

  7. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    Nothing personal, that was just too easy a joke to make.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  8. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 0

    If it is your mental image, then it will seem like the supreme realty to you.

    With a little training, you will be able to see further although.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  9. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, not really. "Reaches", "Tops", "Exceeds", but not "Peaks", not unless the program is now ending and this is the final tally (which it isn't and it's not.)

    --
    Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
  10. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 0

    Any word you use relates to your own realty, which might be far from what is going in truth. Do I make myself clear enough?

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  11. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 2

    Any word you use relates to your own realty, which might be far from what is going in truth. Do I make myself clear enough?

    No. Your word choice was poor. Had you said, "Any word you use relates to your own truth, which might be far from reality" it might have been more poetic. Your version just sounded like mindless po-mo wankery.

    --
    Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
  12. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    The purpose of communication is to convey ideas to others. If you use words with an intended meaning that is different from that of the overwhelming majority of possible recipients of that message, you are communicating poorly.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  13. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 0

    You got the meanings of truth and realty mixed up according to my standard but then again, I understand what you're saying...

    See? It ain't that hard.

    Realty is more often than you wished an illusion while there is only one truth.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  14. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    If all meanings are possible, then it is not possible for me to deduce which one you intended. Your intended meaning of the word "peak" becomes just as valid as "minimum", or "potato".

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  15. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily, I could an emissary sent to make you better overall.

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4366765&cid=45210271

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  16. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    You understand what he's saying because he's not engaged in linguistic solipsism.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  17. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    You're broadcasting in code and you haven't given anyone the key.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  18. Planets! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Planets, planets, everywhere!

    Why must I be stranded on this one, with the damn dirty apes?!

  19. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 0

    Come on Sockatume.

    Enough or else I"ll send some men in black to make you shut up.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  20. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 0

    ok Sockatume, last explanation. After, I am off to work in some fancy bunker.

    For a new born, it might seem like a peak. For somebody who has lived a thousand years, it is nothing new.

    I sincerely wish you an happy experience as a new born spirit. That's what makes human so compelling.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  21. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    Peaks are maxima, though. That's what distinguishes a peak from an upward slope. It's the peakiest thing about peaks, and if you were going to use a peak to refer to a thing that looks like it's peaking, that inherent peakiness is the most important thing you'd want to cinsider.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  22. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 1

    Very good point, I will work on that and get back to you if you volunteer. Be aware that you would be getting into a lot so you have to be mentally prepared.

    Cheers,

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  23. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 1

    I am perfectly aware of the mainstream signification of "peaks". I am an actuarian amongst other things.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  24. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    My point is simply that when you choose to use that word, out of all the words that can be used to indicate that something has been an upward trend, you're using the one word that most succinctly indicates that it said property is now in decline. It ain't a great choice.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  25. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 1

    Fuck mainstream. Didn't you notice where it got us so far? There is only one truth and many realties in realty.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  26. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    Well, as I said, if you're going to communicate, you've got to consider how the recipient will parse the message.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  27. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 1

    I am all about parsing and this is no lies.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  28. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by khallow · · Score: 1

    You got the meanings of truth and realty mixed up according to my standard but then again, I understand what you're saying...

    It's not much of a "standard", if you're the only one following it.

    Realty is more often than you wished an illusion while there is only one truth.

    By commonly held definition, if it is illusion, it is not reality. But having said that, people do confuse their perceptions and beliefs with reality.

  29. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by ls671 · · Score: 0

    Just because you do not know many entities following my "standard" doesn't mean there isn't many following it. So yes, like it or not, it is a standard.

    Your argument sounds like my father is stronger than yours. Please go meditating a bit.

    What you perceive as realty is more than often an illusion. Get along with it.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  30. Re:Peaks? by Alejux · · Score: 1

    Yep. It's all downhill from here, as planets starts to vanish.

  31. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Sockatume · · Score: 1

    Communication is an odds game. If you talk to an audience in such a way that 99% of them will take the incorrect meaning from what you say, and 1% will take the correct one, you're not being pragmatic.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  32. 1000 is arbitrary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Ohhh what a nice round number it is, with all the zeros. It has to Mean something!

    1. Re:1000 is arbitrary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://xkcd.com/1000/

  33. Hnnnngh by Quakeulf · · Score: 1

    I really wish that one day I can visit another planet. :3

  34. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Communication is an odds game. If you talk to an audience in such a way that 99% of them will take the incorrect meaning from what you say, and 1% will take the correct one, you're not being pragmatic.

    I'm a politician you insensitive clod! It's my job to only communicate with the 1% and screw the rest!

  35. Why is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is this news? We know there are an unfathomable number of stars out there. We know that the majority of them will have some sort of debris floating around them. There is no conceivable way for us to get to them. This is basically a case of "yup, there's something out there that we can barely see, that we can't learn much from, and that we'll never be able to get to." Thank you for spending my hard earned tax money on your fruitless pursuits.

    Please work on something in the local star system that might actually be able to merit some benefit.

  36. Kepler has 3000 "candidates" by peter303 · · Score: 1

    I heard in an astronomy talk last week that Kepler has proposed 3200 exoplanets of which 155 have been verified by alternative observations.
    Some reasons for verification:
    (1) 3rd periodic transit not yet observed (longer orbit candidates).
    (2) The Kepler CCD pixel contained multiple stars. Better telescopes are needed to distignusih which star has the plantet.
    (3) Some other pehnomena like a sunspot cause the dimming.

  37. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No thanks. I'm not interested in attempting to decode retard.

  38. "These Thousand Worlds" by Quirkz · · Score: 1

    Puts me in the mood to read a little classic space travel. Some Asimov, or Heinlein, maybe. "These Thousand Worlds," a story of a galactic civilization hitting its stride as it colonizes it's thousandth planet, and the struggles it faces managing such a widespread and diverse collection of worlds.

    Yes, I know most of the first thousand here aren't habitable, but I can imagine we've found and colonized a thousand that are, one of these days.

  39. 1000 isn't the real goal anyway by Fulseman · · Score: 1
  40. There are no exoplanets. IAU says so. by dwheeler · · Score: 1

    The IAU has decided that a planet - at least around our Sun - has to "clear the neighbourhood" around its orbit. There will always be objects we can detect, without being able to detect if the neighbourhood is cleared (currently is all so-called exoplanets).

    One solution is that "planet" has a different definition between our Solar System and everywhere else. But that is inconsistent. What we should do is have the same definition everywhere; I suggest "orbiting star" and "so massive it's round". If that means Pluto and Ceres are planets, well, that's just fine.

    --
    - David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
  41. Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea by khallow · · Score: 1

    Just because you do not know many entities following my "standard" doesn't mean there isn't many following it. So yes, like it or not, it is a standard.

    Whatever. Go back to reading your David Hume.

  42. Meh, time to set a new goal. Actual images. by MXB2001 · · Score: 0

    All these planets have been identified by their gravitational effects. It's time to set a higher and more ambitious goal. To actually SEE a planet.

    --
    01/01/01