Hidden Planet Discovered in Old Hubble Data

[Jimbeaux]

Always cool to know:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512157,00.html

[nigelfr]

Neat. Thanks for posting that.
And on the same page a link to five science fiction ideas that became reality
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510866,00.html

[Jimbeaux]

nigelfr said:

Neat. Thanks for posting that.
And on the same page a link to five science fiction ideas that became reality
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510866,00.html

Thanks for that as well.

[jkennyd]

I wonder how long it will be before they can spot an earth sized planet. In my lifetime I hope

[Simpo Two]

jkennyd said:

I wonder how long it will be before they can spot an earth sized planet. In my lifetime I hope

I can see one from here

[Jimbeaux]

Simpo Two said:

jkennyd said:

I wonder how long it will be before they can spot an earth sized planet. In my lifetime I hope

I can see one from here

Come to think of it, so can I!

[Craig@CMR]

galactica found an earth sized planet 150,000 years ago

[4hero]

Jimbeaux said:

Simpo Two said:

jkennyd said:

I wonder how long it will be before they can spot an earth sized planet. In my lifetime I hope

I can see one from here

Come to think of it, so can I!

Me three, just photographed it in fact



Interesting link on hubble, cheers!

[jkennyd]

4hero said:

Jimbeaux said:

Simpo Two said:

jkennyd said:

I wonder how long it will be before they can spot an earth sized planet. In my lifetime I hope

I can see one from here

Come to think of it, so can I!

Me three, just photographed it in fact



Interesting link on hubble, cheers!

Actually the Moon isnt a planet....Its a ....well....moon

[M3CD]

jkennyd said:

4hero said:

Jimbeaux said:

Simpo Two said:

jkennyd said:

I wonder how long it will be before they can spot an earth sized planet. In my lifetime I hope

I can see one from here

Come to think of it, so can I!

Me three, just photographed it in fact



Interesting link on hubble, cheers!

Actually the Moon isnt a planet....Its a ....well....moon

...and the moon is only 1/4 of Earth's size ?

[Mr Fenix]

Cheers Jimbeaux,

Always enjoyed a bit of astronomy, can't help but wonder if an earth like planet will be found in my lifetime...

[Jimbeaux]

Mr Fenix said:

Cheers Jimbeaux,

Always enjoyed a bit of astronomy, can't help but wonder if an earth like planet will be found in my lifetime...

Not sure; I bet if it is, it will by by some sort of accident.

[CommanderJameson]

Simpo Two said:

jkennyd said:

I wonder how long it will be before they can spot an earth sized planet. In my lifetime I hope

I can see one from here

Yeah, but what about one with intelligent life on it?

[Eric Mc]

I would expect an earth sized planet orbiting another star will be found within the next five years - possibly within the next 12 months.

A couple of weeks ago, NASA launched their new Kepler Observatory and that is the main job of this mission. It is currently tracking towards its parking orbit so it will be a few weeks before it becomes operational. However, I think results are going to flow in from Kepler pretty quickly.

[Hudson]

has this been anywhere else apart from Fox News? the same news station that claimed the space shuttle crash was traveling at "12 times the speed of light" ?

[Eric Mc]

I'm sure that this news story is a couple of weeks old aatually.

For keeping up to date on space and spaceflight developments, I find www.spaceflightnow.com indispensible.

[Pints]

CommanderJameson said:

Simpo Two said:

jkennyd said:

I wonder how long it will be before they can spot an earth sized planet. In my lifetime I hope

I can see one from here

Yeah, but what about one with intelligent life on it?

It'd be nice to find some intelligent life on this one first

[Orb the Impaler]

Jimbeaux said:

Mr Fenix said:

Cheers Jimbeaux,

Always enjoyed a bit of astronomy, can't help but wonder if an earth like planet will be found in my lifetime...

Not sure; I bet if it is, it will by by some sort of accident.

I was watching a documentary recently and they're finding planets all the time (big gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn cos, er they're big) and the concensus would appear to be growing that almost all stars probably have planets. Unfortunately I watch tons of this stuff and can't tell you where I actually saw it.

[Eric Mc]

Current exo-solar planet count is now over 300. The techniques for identifying exo-solar planets are gettoing better and better (almost on a daily basis). Obviously, the larger planets have been discovered first. The smallest detected so far are between three to five times the size of earth. As I said earlier, I fully expect an earth sized planet to be discovered pretty soon.

"Earth-sized", of course, does not mean "earth-like" (Venus is roughly earth-sized and you couldn't dind a more different planet to earth).

Additional techniques are being worked on to determine the atmospheric make-up of these exo-solar planets. Yoiu have to understand that none of these planets have been observed directly but are inferred by the effect they have on their parent stars. However, even within these limitations a number of important characteristics of the newly discovered planet can be worked out -

its mass
its orbit
its orbital period (how long it takes to go around the star (i.e. its year)

In recent years the analysis (using spectral absorption techniques) of the atmospheres of these planets has been undertaken with some interesting results.

[Jimbeaux]

Hudson said:

has this been anywhere else apart from Fox News? the same news station that claimed the space shuttle crash was traveling at "12 times the speed of light" ?

As opposed to CNN, MSNBC, & the BBC that won't acknowledge that that the housing crisis was actually begun by legislation put forth by Jimmy Carter and furthered by Bill Clinton, not the Republicans? That type thing?
It is a real discovery. Perhaps Fox just has more feelers out for stories.