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Thrilling Discovery of Seven Earth-Sized Planets Orbiting Nearby Star (theguardian.com)
At a press conference on Wednesday, NASA scientists announced that they have spotted seven Earth-sized planets orbiting closely around a small, ultra-cool star. The star is 39 light years away. From a report on The Guardian: It is the first time that so many Earth-sized planets have been found in orbit around the same star, an unexpected haul that suggests the Milky Way may be teeming with worlds that, in size and firmness underfoot at least, resemble our own rocky home. The planets closely circle a dwarf star named Trappist-1, which at 39 light years away makes the system a prime candidate to search for signs of life. Only marginally larger than Jupiter, the star shines with a feeble light about 2,000 times fainter than our sun. "The star is so small and cold that the seven planets are temperate, which means that they could have some liquid water and maybe life, by extension, on the surface," said Michael Gillon, an astrophysicist at the University of Liege in Belgium. [...] While the planets have Earth-like dimensions, their sizes ranging from 25 percent smaller to 10 percent larger, they could not be more different in other features. Most striking is how compact the planet's orbits are. Mercury, the innermost planet in the solar system, is six times farther from the sun than the outermost seventh planet is from Trappist-1.
The blast of sterilizing radiation at that distance, combined with being tidally locked and probably wracked with catastrophic earthquakes at that distance would make life on these planets an unlikely impossibility.
How about: Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy and Grumpy?
Well yes, much in the same way one infers the presence of a stream of electrons from an electrical charge or the Big Bang from the CMBR, relative proportions of hydrogen, helium and lithium in the Universe and the red-shift of distant galaxies. Even a particle accelerator like the LHC at CERN does not in fact directly image subatomic particles. For chrissakes, what you "see" isn't a raw image, but is heavily processed by your nervous system, beginning right at the retina itself, then by the optic nerve and then by visual centers in the brain. In other words, what you "see" isn't actually the photons that the physical structures of the eye captures.
Lots of science is inference, seeing as many phenomenon cannot be directly observed. If you're saying inference is somehow questionable, then you're basically calling all form of observation questionable.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Why would I not want to visit other planets that are the most likely so far to contain life?
Simple - it's a Trappist!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
One, they are fairly close. Two, the interaction of multiple bodies lets you determine far more information about their size.
Anyone note how similar this system is to the solar system in Firefly?
Finding that many Earth-sized rocky bodies orbiting a star just 39 lightyears away, with the possibility that some of them may be able to have liquid water on their surface doesn't excite you? Did you have your sense of wonder and curiosity surgically removed?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
These were found using the transit method, which measures a star's reduction in it's brightness as something passes in front of it.
They know that these sorts of occurrences are not things like sunspots because they can follow up using measurements of the wobbling of the star due to the gravity the planets exert on it.
Combine the two and you have a reasonable inference that there are planets orbiting this star.
If these are not planets, given the above two types of evidence correlating with each other, what else could they be?
Chimay be right, chimay be crazy..
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
It will excite me more if there are some alien honey's that sport an anthropomorphic hourglass if you catch my drift. ;)
If I learned anything from Star Trek it's that it isn't bestiality if it's non-terrestrial. Thank you captain Kirk.
He knew probably on Monday, so that gives him a couple more days to create life before his day off. Tell him to have a few beers on me if he meets the deadline.
Your guide to distant worlds:
http://i.imgur.com/6jp4DVK.png
Flawed! I don't know what "consentual" means, but surely don't rely on ASKING when determining if an alien is old enough. The alien I fucked SWORE to me it was 22, then I find out it's planet circles its sun every 90 MINUTES!
No seriously, we should set up a very large synthetic aperture array of telescopes on the far side of the moon to look at these and similar promising exoplanets in high resolution and spectroscopically etc.
Yes. I know the far side of the moon isn't always dark, but half the time it is, and is shaded from Earth's light and our EM emissions etc.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Welcome to astronomy.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I thought the fact that the star is "ultra-cool" is the most exciting thing about this story...
Maybe we can send all the hipsters there?
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
That's where God keeps Earth's backups.
I wonder how far back the oldest goes?
Table-ized A.I.
I don't see how it is improbable that they could not harbor life.
Quote of the day! I had to apply Boolean algebra to deduce your actual meaning.
It's a sad commentary about the state of affairs on this world that access to the original article, based on research on paid for with public money, is no free. It's truly appalling.
Excuse me, but I don't think you saw my sig that I most certainly did not just change right now.
Strong XUV irradiation of the Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting the ultracool dwarf TRAPPIST-1
https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.015...
Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer. - Ludwig von Mises
I can certainly understand why he is a pretty vile human being, but that doesn't going any distance towards defending him.
My honest view is that he has no sincerely held views. I think he just says things to piss people off, and has gathered together a following of young white men in their late teens and early twenties who think that it's really cool to be a repugnant bigot. I don't think that has anything to do with whether Milo was the victim of abuse as a child, and everything to do with the fact that he's an entertainer who has a following to immature and stupid to realize that he's playing them for laughs and giggles.
But even the further end of the conservative spectrum, while certainly happy to openly despise women and minorities, still have pedophilia as possibly their only remaining red line.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
That gravitational deflection could be caused by any nearby massive body, like yo' mama.
One of these issues is hurting established business interests. The other not. That's the key difference.
Seven planets - check.
Exceptionally compact solar system - check.
Exceptionally small star - check.
Try to check if the sixth planet is a gas giant with five moons. Or try to determine if the second planet is purple!
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
the star is "ultra-cool"...Maybe we can send all the hipsters there?
They were there before it was cool.
Man, you really need that seminar!
The moon has quakes, but only the incredibly mild deep moonquakes (700km below the surface) are potentially caused by tidal effects. And it's probably a safe bet that those are *solar* tides rather than Earth tides, since the only Earth-caused tides are the very slight fluctuations caused by the Moon's slightly eccentric orbit and the associated libration. Meanwhile the sun will still be causing tides on a roughly 30 day period (as I recall, on Earth solar tides are about 50% as high as lunar tides - which is why tides are highest during the full and new moons, when Earth, moon, and sun are all aligned.)
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.