Scientists spot a new Earthlike planet

[TechBear_Seattle]

Scientists spot a new Earthlike planet
‘Microlensing’ detects faraway world just 5.5 times bigger than our own

Astronomers on Wednesday announced the discovery of what is possibly the smallest planet known outside our solar system orbiting a normal star.

Its orbit is farther from its host star than Earth is from the sun. Most known extrasolar planets reside inside the equivalent of Mercury’s orbit.

The planet is estimated to be about 5.5 times as massive as Earth and thought to be rocky. It orbits a red dwarf star about 28,000 light-years away. Red dwarfs are about one-fifth as massive as the sun and up to 50 times fainter. But they are among the most common stars in the universe.

So the finding suggests rocky worlds may be common.

The article continues at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11013519/?GT1=7538

[robbedvoter]

1. Did they name it yet?

reminds me that Futurama tells us in the future they'll change the name Uranus. it'll be called Urectum.

[phantom power]

2. I wish they wouldn't use the phrase "earth-like"

I know why they say it, but... come on :-)

[ixion]

3. here's the thing about the "we're the only life in the universe" argument

that I find to be a flaw in the premise: Given the size of the universe, and the potential for other universes to exist; and given that evolution happens where it is possible, it is statistically improbable that there is no other 'intelligent' life to be found anywhere but planet earth.

Not trying to change the subject, but it does seem to be a logical extension. :-)

[BR_Parkway]

4. Exactly, what Intelligent Designer would put all those planets out

there and NOT populate a few more of them?

Seriously, your logic makes perfect sense. But then we wouldn't be special - and they need to remain white males to be special - so they trample on everyone else who is different trying to be special. If life came here from another planet, I have no expectation that today's racists, homophobes and other bigots would be any more welcoming (unless the beings studied us enough to realize that claiming to be angels would probably get them a warmer welcome)

[ixion]

5. aliens, angels or prophets... all would be arrested, executed

and autopsied...historically that's the way we react to things we don't fully comprehend. :-(

[BushOut06]

12. Actually the Bible does imply that

There's a cryptic verse in the Bible where Jesus tells his disciples "other sheep have I that you know not of". Some have taken this to mean alien civilizations - after all, if God had created them, would he not love them as well?

[Odin2005]

6. Intresting.

The fact that is has ice shows it is far enough away fromit's star for the ice not to melt/sublimate, meaning it's beyond the "snow line". What is intresting is that gas giants can only form beyond the snow line because there is so much more ice that rock that you can get protoplanets big enough to suck up hydrogen from the proto-planetary disks. Once the largest protoplanets beyond the snow line become gas giants, the remaining large bodies are either absorbed by the gas giants, thrown into their star, tosed far away to form the system's oort cloud, or thrown into interstellar space. How this guy survived is byond me. It does lend support the the "core accretion" model of gas giant formation.

[emad]

7. Smallest Earth-like planet found :BBC

By Rebecca Morelle
BBC News science reporter



Scientists used the microlensing technique to find the new planet
An international team of astronomers has found the smallest Earth-like planet yet outside our Solar System.

The new planet has five times the Earth's mass and can be found about 25,000 light-years away in the Milky Way, orbiting a red dwarf star.

The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, was made using a method called microlensing, which can detect far-off planets with an Earth-like mass.

The planet's cold temperatures make the chance of finding life very unlikely.

The planet, which goes by the name OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, takes about 10 years to orbit its parent star, a red dwarf which is similar to the Sun but cooler and smaller.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4647142.stm

[Mistwell]

8. Very cool

I love it every time we find a new way to detect planets. I only hope, eventually, we can get to the point where we can detect planets the size of earth, in roughly the same distance from a star as earth is from the sun. This is just another step, but it's great to watch it happening in our lifetime.

[NNadir]

9. We should focus radio telescopes there to see if they are broadcasting

insipid sitcoms. If they are doing so, this would suggest that we not look for signs of intelligent life there.

[Mistwell]

10. Ha!

Yeah I will suggest it to SETI online...

[phantom power]

11. If they *are* there, they'll be very, very short :-)