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Astronomers Discover 60 New Planets Including 'Super Earth' (nypost.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from New York Post: An international team of astronomers has found 60 new planets orbiting stars close to Earth's solar system, including a rocky "super Earth." The experts also found evidence of an additional 54 planets, bringing the potential discovery of new worlds to 114. One planet in particular, Gliese 411b, has been generating plenty of attention. Described as a "hot super Earth with a rocky surface," Gliese 411b is located in the fourth-nearest star system to the Sun, making it the third-nearest planetary system to the Sun, according to the U.K.'s University of Hertfordshire, which participated in the research. Gliese 411b (also known as GJ 411b or Lalande 21185) orbits the star Gliese 411 (or GJ 411). Despite the "super Earth" label, Dr. Mikko Tuomi from University of Hertfordshire's Centre for Astrophysics told Fox News that Gliese 411b is too hot for life to exist on its surface. The 60 new planets are found orbiting stars that are mostly some 20 to 300 light years away, according to Tuomi. The discoveries are based on observations taken over 20 years by U.S. astronomers using the Keck-I telescope in Hawaii as part of the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey. During the course of the research, scientists obtained almost 61,000 observations of 1,600 stars, which are now available to the public.
Provided that the Universe has at least 100 bn galaxies which have an estimated average of 100 bn of stars each, that's 10^22 stars. We will not run out of planets anytime soon.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
During the course of the research, scientists obtained almost 61,000 observations of 1,600 stars, which are now available to the public. Have a go at it. https://www.planethunters.org/ Ready to discover new worlds?
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It's the perfect website for catching up on all the news that was published elsewhere a few days ago.
Here's any idea for a nice change of pace, take your political comments and go somewhere else. This is a science article.
Captain Obvious
Is like earth, but better on every sense? like having a super sundae instead of regular sundaes or a super intel that runs their processors at 20 Ghz because they use the super silicon?
And most importantly, do they name everything super (something)?
Future earth sound like a better name.
The White house denied these as a hoax.
"These are obviously not real as those planets are orbiting around other stars, this is impossible as everything orbits around our Orange fearless leader."
This is prompting a huge surge in scientists all over the country to emigrate to Canada.
Maybe they should be going to Mexico instead.
Just a tiny typo in the Slashdot article there... indeed, we may be alone in the University. Everyone else is out at the pub.
The universe is an electromagnetic universe. The physics in space and planetary bodies work very similar to that of magnets in zero gravity. This is why the Earth itself has a magnetic field. It's why the Earth has a northern and southern pole which are magnetically negative and positive. It's why all the planets in this universe align precisely at the equator of the sun, despite how far apart they are. The universe is electromagnetic.
Gravity is an electromagnetic force. The larger the object, the stronger its gravitational force. This is how magnets work. The larger the magnet, the stronger its magnetic force. So, can a human safely land or even *stand* on a supposed "Super Earth" without serious complications? The answer is NO, because, remember, the larger the object, the stronger its gravitational (magnetic) force. Essentially, gravity would increase the larger the planet is, and we'd be crushed by that same force. Our equipment would be crushed, landing would be several times more dangerous since we use primitive fossil fuel propulsion systems for flight, and parachutes - using pockets of air - to resist the force of gravity. It's very primitive. We wouldn't survive on such a planet, let alone, land safely on it!