Galaxy has 'billions of Earths'

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891132.stm


There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.

Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science said many of these worlds could be inhabited by simple lifeforms.

He was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.

So far, telescopes have been able to detect just over 300 planets outside our Solar System.

Very few of these would be capable of supporting life, however. Most are gas giants like our Jupiter; and many orbit so close to their parent stars that any microbes would have to survive roasting temperatures.

But, based on the limited numbers of planets found so far, Dr Boss has estimated that each Sun-like star has on average one "Earth-like" planet.

This simple calculation means there would be huge numbers capable of supporting life.

"Not only are they probably habitable but they probably are also going to be inhabited," Dr Boss told BBC News. "But I think that most likely the nearby 'Earths' are going to be inhabited with things which are perhaps more common to what Earth was like three or four billion years ago." That means bacterial lifeforms.

Dr Boss estimates that Nasa's Kepler mission, due for launch in March, should begin finding some of these Earth-like planets within the next few year.

[Droo]

Dr. Boss. Epic name.

[Nathanial K'cansce]

He's kind of being optimistic with his numbers there. I would love to know where he got the numbers he was able to estimate from, as most like what was said, are gas giants or too close.

Sure they have found a couple "earthies", but ... I have a hard time believing *billions* are in our galaxy alone. /shrugs.

[Lykaios]

Oooooo...more worlds to conquer! bwhahahaha!

[Dasquian Belargic]

He's kind of being optimistic with his numbers there. I would love to know where he got the numbers he was able to estimate from, as most like what was said, are gas giants or too close.

Sure they have found a couple "earthies", but ... I have a hard time believing *billions* are in our galaxy alone. /shrugs.


Stop shitting all over our dreams of alien worlds full of three-breasted women, Snack :shakefist

[Jamie Morrigan]

http://xkcd.com/384/

;)

[Crusader]

Cool so if we might end up killing this one there are plenty of other earths where we can move to.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Cool so if we might end up killing this one there are plenty of other earths where we can move to.

Yes, we can go.. found colonies elsewhere.

Maybe even.. twelve colonies.

:mischief

[Jamie Morrigan]

We're far more likely to kill ourselves than the planet.

http://qntm.org/?destroy

Granted, rendering it uninhabitable is also an option.

[Dasquian Belargic]

That almost sounds like a challenge :mischief

[Feral]

It is. but when there's an Earth that was, I will not be under the heel of the Alliance. I'll just keep flying farther and farther and never have to answer to nobody ever again.

[Rossos Atrapes]

I find it very plausible that there are billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy. It's either that, or there are none like Earth anywhere else. Most theories drawn from what we have observed on nearby stars and such can only find the larger planets and such based on their effect on the stars and light. Planets that are moderate to small, like Earth, would be nearly impossibly to find, either mathematically or visually, that recent find (now I can't remember where I read this, damn it!) being an exception to that rule.

[Peter McCoy]

I dunno about billions, but given how immense our galaxy is, I think the odds are most definitely in favour of there being many other planets like our own.

And as for anybody who thinks there aren't (and lets face it, at the moment thinking and speculating is all we can do) are just boring buggers. If you take away the science, what you're left with is the incredibly awesome and exciting idea that somewhere out there is a planet with qualities like ours.

[Park Kraken]

Even if there was only 1% of that figure of other Earths out there, that would still be "millions" of Earths out there. And if only 1% of them out there are capable of supporting human life, then that is still 10,000 planets at least capable of colonization by us. And should 1% of those actually have life, then there would still be 100 planets that we could bring our favorite pastime of conquest and war to.

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090306-kepler-planethunter-launch-night.html


NASA's new planet-hunting Kepler telescope launched into space late Friday, lighting up the night sky above Florida as it began an ambitious mission to seek out Earth-like planets around alien stars.

Kepler blasted off atop a Delta 2 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:49 p.m. EST (0349 March 7 GMT). The $600 million spacecraft will gaze at a single region of our Milky Way galaxy for at least three years in a planetary census that, scientists say, could fundamentally alter humanity's view of its role in the universe.

[Callista]

Yes, we can go.. found colonies elsewhere.

Maybe even.. twelve colonies.

:mischief

This! <3 <3

[Dasquian Belargic]

Now all we need is a bespectacled MILF to be our president :cool

[Zai]

I would love for them to learn how to teleport me to one of those "Earths" with a woman of my choice...

:)

[Ergo]

i own most of them..........:whip:cyduck:twak