Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA Finds Evidence Of 10 New Earth-sized Planets (usatoday.com)

Posted by msmash on from the new-horizon dept.

NASA said Monday it has found new evidence of 219 planets outside our Solar System. Ten of those exoplanets appear to be similar to the size of the Earth and orbit their stars in the habitable zone. From a report: The new planets' existence must still be double-checked. But Kepler's latest haul -- which includes a planet that is only slightly larger than Earth and receives the same amount of energy from its sun as Earth -- is the latest triumph for Kepler, which has spotted roughly 80 percent of the planets orbiting stars other than our sun. Because of their potential for hosting life, the 10 Earth-size planets are the most glamorous of the newly announced planets from Kepler. But those 10 were joined by an additional 209 more garden-variety planets that are unlikely to be hospitable to life because they are too gassy, too hot, too cold or otherwise unlike the only known planet to host life: Earth.

10 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. That makes 24 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We are now up to 24 exoplanets that are very similar to earth in terms of size and ratio of distance to star : star size. With 24, we are starting to get into statistically significant numbers. Close observations should start to give us an idea of whether life is common or if we are a very rare oddity.

    Yes, life could evolve on other types of planets, but this is all we know for now and is the most sensible place to focus our efforts. So over the next few years I hope we spend a lot of effort looking at these two dozen planets to see what we can see.

    FWIW, the closes planet of this type is "only" 4 light years away. The furthest 1402 light years away (far by even Star Trek standards).

    1. Re:That makes 24 by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      just how much power is such a probe going to have to pack?

      It doesn't have to pack any power. Using a solar sail, it could exit the solar system at about 0.05c (80 years to go 4ly) just using sunlight. But it could be boosted to a much higher speed by also aiming earth or space based lasers at the sail. If we can get it up to 0.2c, that is only 20 years to destination.

      If the probe is small, the sail can also be small. Some proposals are for a probe the size of a pack of cigarettes, or even a postage stamp.

      Stopping at the other end of the journey is a much harder problem, but even a flyby could give us a huge amount of useful data.

    2. Re:That makes 24 by techno-vampire · · Score: 2

      It doesn't have to pack any power. Using a solar sail, it could exit the solar system at about 0.05c (80 years to go 4ly) just using sunlight. But it could be boosted to a much higher speed by also aiming earth or space based lasers at the sail.

      That's not even a new idea. Back in 1974, The Mote in God's Eye had an interstellar probe carried by a light sail come into a human-colonized system and reveal the Motie's existence to humanity. In fact, the space-based lasers that were used to launch it were so powerful that they changed the apparent brightness and color of the star they orbited enough to cause credulous colonists to found a new religion.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    3. Re:That makes 24 by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      You be missin' some zeros. The world generates about 24,000 TWh/y currently:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      A typical nuclear reactor puts out around 1 GW. So you need 65 of them (or one with 65 times the capacity). Not trivial, but not exactly requiring engineering breakthroughs either.

    4. Re:That makes 24 by ceoyoyo · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not that hard. A Hubble-sized space telescope could see a kilowatt laser over 4 light years. The hard part is sending something big enough to generate that kind of power 4 light years.

  2. Other links with details by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's the NASA link: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/ne...
    and here's the space.com story, with more details: https://www.space.com/37242-na...

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  3. Terrible news by FeelGood314 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This means what ever filter has prevented someone else from already colonizing our galaxy, being something we have already avoided, is a little less likely. That means that the thing preventing us from being the first to colonize the galaxy is probably still in our future.

    1. Re:Terrible news by WrongMonkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Limitations based on the speed of light are only a problem for us because we have a such a limited lifespan. Its not hard to imagine a species that is biologically immortal (either naturally or technologically), for whom spending a few millennia on a interstellar journey is the equivalent to a long cruise at sea.

    2. Re:Terrible news by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      Hippie BS. If you give any species the opportunity to expand, they will. Species live in equilibrium because they do not live "sustainably." Many of their members, particularly the young, get eaten or starve to death.

    3. Re:Terrible news by WrongMonkey · · Score: 2

      That is an oversimplification to the point of absurdity. I guess you've never heard of K verus r reproductive strategies? If your asserted claim were true, then the most technologically advanced human societies would have the fastest population growth rate. In fact, the opposite is generally true.