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1 in 20 Stars Possibly Orbited by "Earth-like" planets
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| occrider |
Universe could be teeming with life, says study
By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 01/04/2004)
One in 20 stars in the night sky could be orbited by Earth-like planets capable of supporting alien life, according to a new British study.
Astronomers have shown that rocky planets lying in a habitable zone where temperatures are suitable for life are more common than was previously thought.
Within 10 years, telescopes should be powerful enough to detect these planets directly and reveal whether their atmospheres contain tell-tale traces of life, they say.
Since the mid-1990s, astronomers have discovered 105 planetary systems outside our Solar System.
These far distant planets cannot be seen with telescopes, but they can be indirectly detected. If planets are big enough and close enough to a star, their gravitational pull causes the star to wobble slightly - a motion that can be detected from Earth.
Ever since the first "extrasolar" planetary system was detected in the mid-1990s, scientists have been eager to find out whether they could harbour life. For life as we know it to exist, a rocky planet would need to lie within a region known as the Goldilocks - where temperatures are not too hot, nor too cold, for life.
Prof Barrie Jones of the Open University told the Royal Astronomical Society's conference in Milton Keynes: "All we have discovered so far are Jupiter-type planets which are not likely to harbour life. But we expect there to be smaller rocky worlds within the habitable zone where the water would be liquid."
His team created computer models of nine of the known solar systems. Prof Jones launched virtual rocky planets with masses between one tenth and 10 times the size of the Earth into the models to see what would happen. The team launched the planets into different parts of the Golilocks zone - with each orbit taking four or five days to process on a personal computer.
In some systems, the habitable planets were ejected from their orbit by the immense gravitational tug of the giant planets. But in around half, there were either safe zones within the Goldilocks zone, or the entire zone was safe.
The models also show that life could develop in about two thirds of the systems because the habitable zone moves outwards over time as the star becomes more active.
"We now think that at least 10 per cent of stars in the Earth's backyard have planetary systems," he said. "If only half of these are able to sustain a rocky planet in the habitable zone, it means that one in 20 could harbour life. It is possible that the universe is teeming with life."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$MNG1PTYKSXOGRQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2004/04/01/nspace01.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/01/ixnewstop.html |
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| Q5echo |
http://www.astrobio.net/news/module...article&sid=903
Newtonian physics: it's laws govern the heavens and the celestial bodies movement within them. Safe to say that those same laws apply on the surface of those same celestial bodies.
Given that, one could assume that the origins of life have given away to billions of years of biological development (notice I didn't say the E word) on the, say, statistically sound number of 100 of those planets that are just far enough away from their star to support such development. The dominant species, using the same Newtonian physics, would undoubtedly stumble across electricty. Leading to communication. Then radio waves. Then microwaves. VLF, EHF so on and so on.
Either we are the first one to accomplish this given or devolopment and the rest of the universe is playing catch up.
Or there have been civilizations come and gone and their high freq echoes have diminished.
Or we're bringing up the rear in development in a cosmic way and every one else is using a much highly advanced form of comms bypassing the exitement of electrons altogether.
No clue. |
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| Ondrayce |
| I don't care if there is life beyond Earth as long as they accept the Lord, Jesus Christ as their one and only savior. |
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| trancaholic |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
Newtonian physics: it's laws govern the heavens and the celestial bodies movement within them. Safe to say that those same laws apply on the surface of those same celestial bodies.
Given that, one could assume that the origins of life have given away to billions of years of biological development (notice I didn't say the E word) on the, say, statistically sound number of 100 of those planets that are just far enough away from their star to support such development. The dominant species, using the same Newtonian physics, would undoubtedly stumble across electricty. Leading to communication. Then radio waves. Then microwaves. VLF, EHF so on and so on.
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Man, you are applying induction as there was no tomorrow.
1. Newtonian laws govern nothing - they are bad names for a bunch of equations whose predictions happen to be good approximations to what we observe. At least for what we observe on the kg scale and moving sufficiently slow.
2. Even if we (through observation) has determined that the Newtonian world model is a very good approximation for the movements of planets around the sun, then we have no reason to assume that this model is a fine approximation for the areas around other stars.
3. If there were other civilizations in space you are assuming that their history would naturally follow that of ours. That's generalizing from one example.
I'm not saying that we can hope for any better guesses than that of all parts of the universe behaving similarly, but we shouldn't draw ontological conclusions from such reasoning IMO.
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
Either we are the first one to accomplish this given or devolopment and the rest of the universe is playing catch up.
Or there have been civilizations come and gone and their high freq echoes have diminished.
Or we're bringing up the rear in development in a cosmic way and every one else is using a much highly advanced form of comms bypassing the exitement of electrons altogether.
No clue. |
Or maybe the other civilizations are following totally different paths than that of ours. Say, communicating by varying magnetic fields around them. Or applying principles unknown to us for moving objects through time and space. Just because we have not found any radiowaves, the existence of civilizations out there is not an impossibility. |
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| Q5echo |
Point taken. Maybe I should have been more specific in the opening, more like, Einsteinian physics govern the movements of celestial bodies in the heavens. (that has yet to be disproved) I am still convinced though, that even an approximation of Newtonian physics would exist on an earth-like planet elsewhere in this galaxy giving way for the evolution of a similar species of dominant life form like us here on earth. No doubt different, but still governed and questioned by that lifeform (I sound like Mr. Spock). It would seem natural that, through development of questioning their physics, they would eventually come across the exitement of electrons. A GENERALIZATION? Yes, but one that is proven by the only history we know. Ours. And we know that it takes baby steps to go from observing gravity (Newton) to exploiting the atom (Einstein) to communicating with gravity waves (whoever). Within that timeframe, experiments with electrons and transmission is essential. If your looking for advanced civilizations in the cosmos, I think that the evidence of their evolution in their science should leave that distinct footprint.
I'm not totaly convinced there is other life out ther either. Thats a long limb to stand on. In fact, my first post was purposefully written to question that fact.
goin to bed now. |
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| tathi |
i like these threads of yours Occ, we need more science in this forum, also shame on newscientist.com for not sending this article to my inbox
PS: Question for Nellie; if all these Aliens have not heard of your god, will they be sent to hell by your god? |
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| Arbiter |
| quote: | Originally posted by tathi
PS: Question for Nellie; if all these Aliens have not heard of your god, will they be sent to hell by your god? |
No, but even though we have not heard of their god(s), we will be sent to hell by their god(s). :( |
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| St_Andrew |
| cool :) i'm rather sure that there is life in the universe, not as advanced as us though, or as trancaholic said, they may be very different from us, perhps they have no need whatsoever to explore things etc... |
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| WhoaNellie1487 |
| quote: | Originally posted by tathi
PS: Question for Nellie; if all these Aliens have not heard of your god, will they be sent to hell by your god? |
First off,Don't be immature. Second off,I don't believe aliens exist. Believe what you want,but I don't believe in it. |
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| Cyrus King |
| quote: | Originally posted by tathi
i like these threads of yours Occ, we need more science in this forum, also shame on newscientist.com for not sending this article to my inbox
PS: Question for Nellie; if all these Aliens have not heard of your god, will they be sent to hell by your god? |
AHHAHHAHAHH
thanks, im sure she thinks were are the only living organisms in the infinite universe. |
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| icyhandofcrap |
hmm would be cool if extraterrestrial life existed.
and we would get sent to (insert appropriate concept of hell) by everyone's god(s), looking at the number of religions that are out there. the aliens' ones can join in the fun :) |
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| hooknife |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ondrayce
I don't care if there is life beyond Earth as long as they accept the Lord, Jesus Christ as their one and only savior. |
You are joking? Right?!?! If not you make me want to puke. Sorry. |
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