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."

Comments

Flags

[Thanshin]

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.

Re:Flags

[smittyoneeach]

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?

Re:Flags

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Flags

[TWiTfan]

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.

Re:Flags

[mcgrew]

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.

Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Peaks"

[KernyKat]

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

"Peaks"?

[Sockatume]

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

Re:"Peaks"?

[Sockatume]

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

Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea

[FatLittleMonkey]

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.)

Re:Bad subject word choice... "Exoplanet Count Pea

[FatLittleMonkey]

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.