Another Solar System Like our Own?

[Mr. Sparkle]

Source: universetoday.com

There is another Sun-like star out there with an intriguing family of planets orbiting about and it could be the closest parallel to our own solar system that astronomers have found yet. European astronomers discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets, orbiting the star HD 10180, with evidence that two other planets may be present. If confirmed, one of those would have the lowest mass ever found.

“We have found what is most likely the system with the most planets yet discovered,” says Christophe Lovis, who led the team. “This remarkable discovery also highlights the fact that we are now entering a new era in exoplanet research: the study of complex planetary systems and not just of individual planets. Studies of planetary motions in the new system reveal complex gravitational interactions between the planets and give us insights into the long-term evolution of the system.”

To make this system even more intriguing, the team also found evidence that the distances of the planets from their star follow a regular pattern, as also seen in our Solar System. “This could be a signature of the formation process of these planetary systems,” said team member Michel Mayor.

HD 10180, is located 127 light years away in the southern constellation of Hydrus. The five confirmed planets are large, about the size of Neptune — between 13 and 25 Earth masses —with orbital periods ranging from between six and 600 days. The planets’ distances from the star ranges from 0.06 and 1.4 times the Earth–Sun distance.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/71957/another-solar-system-like-our-own/

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The Kepler Mission has yielded some great results so far, but this has to be their best find.

[Vehl]

1. K&R fascinating stuff

more effort needs to be put into researching novel propulsion systems/methods

[Tikki]

2. Amazing...I love science...

but it makes me a little sad that we waste so much money on
wars and shoring up losing fat-cats when we could be out and
about the Universe.

I'm afraid our civilization may not make it here on Earth long enough
to regret not getting out there sooner.


Tikki

[JuniperLea]

3. Well said, Tikki...

So much time, money, and effort is wasted chasing worthless things. The shoring up of fat-cats is a huge problem, and ending that alone could give us financial margin to do a lot of space and other science exploration.

[savalez]

6. Carl Sagan said...

"The late Dr. Carl Sagan pointed out that such an extremely advanced civilization might have no interest whatsoever in our primitive human species. The gap would be too immense and such aliens would conceivably look at us, as we look at lower forms of life, such as insects for example. Or they might just ignore us as so underdeveloped that communication with us would be a waste of their time. "

[Diclotican]

9. savalez

savalez

Or, they are just keeping in the shadow, to the day when even our primitive culture, who is ravaged by war and violence is been grown up, and be ready to come into the galacit community as a whole?.. As a speacise we the humans, is really young one, and maybe many of the "older" ones have grown up, from violence and war... Or at least managed to put it behind them in a fasion, becouse the discovery of space was more important than to kill eatch other..

Or it can be as some stories in the great Star Trek Universe is telling, that the majority have eradicated the minority, and then stoped waging war, as the enemy are not there anymore... Or it maybe have not been diferent speases, or collours in the skin, så the speasies in case, are not in any danger to kill "the others"...

Or, as in Star trek too, humans have going true the big fire, and discovered the hard way, that to surive we must be togheter and work for the same goal, who was to make the planet earth a better place to be, where starving and need was a part of the past, mutch thank to he invention of new propulation systems, the invention of food replicators, and the abolisment of money in the economy.. When everyone have food, cloth, and roof over their head, they tend to be more sivilized..


But, as Quark, the Ferrengi in DS9 discovered, and was trying to tell his nephew when he enlisted at the Academy.. Humans is a gentle nice race, but if they loose their replicators, their comfort you wil se humans as they really are, a dangrous spices, who is far worse than the Klingons (who are the most warrior like spieces in the star trek universe, and who are a player in galactic affairs who many times is rather recless and not allways to trust)


But for the moment we have to try to make it, to the next level, where our amazing posibility CAN be devolment.. I doubt, really doubt that we as humans is just a gang of barbaric animals, who in the end wil blow ourself up in a nuclear holocaust.. I'm sure, that we can make it far longer than just to the moon - 40 year ago. I'm sure, as Carl Sagan was also, that the place for humans, are not sitting here for the rest of our sivilizations time, but to discover, and be discovered by others, out there in space.. First maybe as a nuance who can be tolerated, but nothing more, but more and more maybe as an galactic player, as our sivilization is growing, and mature... Im sure that in 100 to 200 years time, we wil be more sure about ourself, and our place in the universe.. 200 year, with peace and peacefull discovery wil do amazing things for us Im sure... But then we have to work togheter on a larger level than today.

Even today, we as humans, have enough food, and ressourses to feed our needy, and our poors, even today, all humans can, and should have enough food to live decent.. And also have acess to work and healthcare.. If all of us, wanted it, or at least made it aviable, all humans, could have the same rights...
But then we have to stop making war, and destroy, disable most of the war like industry.. And then start building something that everyone can agree is better.. Im aware that Star trek is fiction, but if it was posible, to work togheter both on this planet, and in a big fedreation, to make the future better than the past, then that is a fiction Im ready, and willing to made a posibility...

Diclotican

[savalez]

18. Hear Hear!

[zonkers]

17. Unless of course, they realize we taste delicious.

[Diclotican]

23. zonkers

zonkers


Allways a posibility, but most animals here on earth, would rather not eat us,becouse we taste not to good... So if alliens are out there, they might discover the same as some animals have discovered, that humans taste not good.. And better leaved alone

Diclotican

[tourivers83]

26. We do these things because they are hard.

With all the possibilities life probably exists in many places but life that can look up at the nighttime sky and wonder what life is and why are we here. That kind of life could be rare. And valuable. But the distances are so vast; this insignificant planet of this insignificant sun has not been visited for a long while. Not since life was brought here when a Starship on a survey mission stopped by, and one of the crew went behind that big pile of rocks to stretch her legs and take a shit.:loveya:

[superconnected]

10. Lucky for the other planets.

I mean, would you want BP moving in?

[bluesmail]

11. Me too. I love science and the discoveries that science brings! It's a never-ending

network. I love science. (And thinking back I turned my nose up to it. HA!) I'm making up for all those nose snubbings now.

[boomerbust]

4. Does anyone really know

There could be a quadrillion solar systems just like ours.

[superconnected]

13. I've seen them announce ones like ours serveral times now.

[golfguru]

5. With over a Trillion suns out there, life is certain to exist

on Billions of planets out there.

But how do you reach/communicate with systems 127 light years away?
Light travels at tremendous speed and if it takes light 127 years to
reach the nearest similar planetary system, it is absolutely and
positively impossible to communicate with them.

[izquierdista]

7. Not with dial-up

[golfguru]

20. Ha ha ha ha ha

that is the funniest post I have read on DU.

[Diclotican]

12. golfguru

golfguru

Not with our current tecnology, thats is true.. But who know, what technology a culture who maybe is more advanced than us can use to comunicate?.. They might have a whole bunch of communication that we are not even avare off.. Or that we can't understand what it was even if we was able to listen into it.. I could be similar to the backround noice we experience when we use our antenna to try to listen to things out there...

Or they can be using subspace tecnology, who in many Sience Fiction movies and series are been used to communicate over waste distanses, in a second or two...

And who know what posibility we have, if we have been using our "war money" to building new tecnology?.. If we had used half the money who are used on war machines worldwide, we could have technology in a 50 to 100 year time, that we can't even dreame of today..

Diclotican

[golfguru]

19. You are free to dream on

I have nothing against you fantasizing.

But if you have studied elementary physics at college level,
it would be abundantly clear what a light yea means. To travel
ONE light year miles will require 14,000 human generations. That
is more generations than when man left Africa. So travel is out.

As for communications, it will take 127 years to receive a message
from this "advanced" civilization. By the time we figure out what
they are saying and construct a reply, your great-great-grand son
will have to look for a reply from the advanced civilization.

I know...it is boring to be a realist.

[Diclotican]

22. golfguru

golfguru

Its still free to dream I know.. But I also know the reality of physic, and the fact is that it is not easy to travel between Stars.. I can be don, but it is not easy, and with our current tech imposible.. Maybe in 100 or 200 year, we have the tech nessesary to travel between stars in a faster fashion than today.. But today we have not near the tech posible to even travel inside our own solar system in weeks.. For all our space travel, we have not even moved a human to Mars, our closest PLANET in the solar system, so the posibility that we can travel between stars for the posible future is zero...

We humans is rather limited, becouse of our age limit.. Another culture, who have overcome what we today is fighting nail and tail every day, can also have discover how to be older, mutch older, maybe our friends out there can live a century or more, withouth problems.. Then 127 year to wait for a replay from us, is maybe not so difficult.. Even tho the orginal contact from US would be different, becouse our great-grand son have to look for the reply

But, if an advanced civilisation is to beam information to us, they might try to get us on the galactic communication network before they want to communicate with us faster.. We know from our own tech, that a large form of information can be beamed into a radio signal, and with the right equipment it can be desiffered, and a clear text wil come in the other hand.. A advanced Sivilization, with a large volume of knowlede, wil know that to contact younger, less advanced sivilizations, they need to contact, and give information to how to contact them. Its similar to when europeans was inventing the radio, and was giving it as "present" to tribal elders in Africa.. The tribal elders was first really amazed about the new thing, but had to be learned how to operate it.. The same case is maybe the case here too?

And even we, humans have a lot of ways to comunicate over posible waste distanses, using lasers, who have been used by military satelits for decades, at least from the late 1980s, military satelites, have been using different sorts of lasers, to communicate over waste distanses.. Of course its diference between a satelite in orbit at Earth, but the consept is still sound, and can be used on far waste distanses, if we want it to do it.. But we need to have better equipment between stars I know.. But inside our own solar system laser, and other sorts of communications can be used, even tho it still wil take some time, to reply to communications.. Becouse of the time dial between Earth, and lets say Mars, or other places

It is not IMPOSIBLE, just REALLY difficult to do it.. And i have a optimistic way of looking for humans, if we just put our mind to it, we can to what many think is "Imposible"..

Diclotican

[Chulanowa]

29. Well, another reason light-speed travel is impossible...

At that speed, atoms and subatomic particles become projectiles. Imagine taking a sandblaster to the face. or more accurately, being locked in a room with a few dozen pounds of plutonium for the duration. Unless some way is discovered to travel in an absolute vacuum (and unless a way to PRODUCE an absolute vacuum is discovered) it remains an impossibility.

[quakerboy]

24. Been there done that

a few thoughts... You are correct. With what we have and what we know, the situation is as you describe. On the other hand, 400 years ago, what would someone have said about the concept of pair of I phones allowing a guy in Ohio to talk with and see a guy in Greece in real time? There is still room for growth of knowledge, for the existence of possibilities we do not yet see.

That said, I doubt it will all just fall into our laps, and as a Biology guy, I know the relative needs for life to come about are pretty darn restrictive. Even in an existence like ours, its likely to be few and far between, if it exists out there. I do wonder about the particles that act in tandem. I forget what they are called, the ones that you can physically separate, and they still act as one. Could we build some sort of long distance communication built on that, if we ever head out to the stars?

[jayfish]

30. Quantum teleportation is what you are referring to.

It's not science fiction folks.

http://www.care2.com/news/member/125060838/2081505

A team of 15 Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences, a government-directed research center, in May published a research paper announcing a successful demonstration of "quantum teleportation" (liangzi yinxing chuan) over 16 kilometers of free space.

These researchers claimed to have the first successful experiment in the world. The technology on display has the potential to revolutionize secure communications for military and intelligence organizations and may become the watershed of a research race in communication and information technology.

Although much of the science behind this technology is still young, quantum technologies have wide-ranging applications for the fields of cryptography, remote sensing and secure satellite

[quakerboy]

31. That does appear to be what I was talking about

Though I would quibble with calling it teleportation. Quantum entanglement seems enough. Teleport seems to imply that something physical is being transported, which as far as I understand it, is not true, it is merely spin being effected over distance. My understanding was that it was instant, no delay. Though if 16k is as far as it has been tried, it would seem difficult to confirm there is absolutely no delay as yet.

I suppose it does have implications for secure communication. I had thought more in terms of distance communication when the idea was presented to me. I also wondered at potential for energy transmission, IE, use heat from source x to change the spin of one bit, then use the new spin of the other bit to create energy on the other side, moving it sans wire. Im sure there are good reasons why my relatively uneducated ideas are not applicable, but such is the nature of knowing only enough to speculate.

[Wednesdays]

15. They'll be able to pick up our earliest radio signals in about 12 years

And our earliest broadcast radio about 40 years from now, and TV in less than 60. So in a way, in might not be that long...

[golfguru]

21. OKKKAY...... and then your grand-daughter will be looking

for a response in a language she won't understand.

[Wednesdays]

27. Maybe so

Although, if they're at our level of technology or above, they can figure out a way to communicate in a way we could understand. Maybe for amusement, they'd send us their equivalent of Lucky Strike and Texaco commercials. :rofl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU49DSS1ibc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5iypuYl4E0

[Devil_Fish]

16. Watch the movie Contact. NT

[dnbn]

8. It is a European Southern Observatory discovery, not Kepler's.

[Diclotican]

14. Mr. Sparkle

Mr. Sparkle

Interesting, to say at least.. But the theory is that our sun, or even our own solar system, have at least ONE siblings out there in the universe.. So if this is similar to our solar system, that can prove once and for all, that we might not be alone out there.. Maybe others, similar to us, can be pooking at the stars and wondering if that little yellow star to the right for the left,maybe is similar to them... Maybe its many planets out there, similar to our own, where life have evolved to at least our own posibility.. Or maybe better, more adwanced.. Maybe they have learned to not waging war all the time, and maybe even use ressourses to the best of "their" lifeforms..

We are not alone out there, that Im sure about.. But where they are, thats is a subject who could be discussed many hours.. But that is defently a posibility

Diclotican

[aquart]

25. With Class M planets?

[Uncle Joe]

28. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Mr. Sparkle.

[Art_from_Ark]

32. If there are 5 Neptune-size planets less than 140M miles

from that "sun-like star", there is no way that solar system even remotely resembles ours. Only 6 days to travel around the sun? For a Neptune-size planet? And all the planets have "regular" orbits, even though at that close range they must be exerting a lot of gravitational pressure on each other? Somehow, I've got to take this "report" with a huge grain of salt.

[NickB79]

33. Indeed. Only a moon in orbit around one of the further-out gas giants might be habitable

Pandora, anyone?