Discussion on technology and how it could be used to assist spiritual development and NOT enslave us. This includes technology that will help us live in harmony with Nature (e.g.: "Lifter" technologies that could replace the petrol driven engine). Also, discussion of past and current scientific thought so that gems are not buried in the sands of time, and spiritual progress through science is achieved.
"The Hubble Space Telescope may have discovered as many as 100 new planets orbiting stars in our galaxy.
Hubble's harvest comes from a sweep of thousands of stars in the dome-like bulge of the Milky Way.
If confirmed it would almost double the number of planets known to be circling other stars to about 230.
The discovery will lend support to the idea that almost every sunlike star in our galaxy, and probably the Universe, is accompanied by planets."
...
"If this is confirmed, in seven days we will have doubled the number of planets known in nine years."
Steven Beckwith, Space Telescope Science Institute.
...
The astronomers expect it should be possible to study the atmospheres of between 10% and 20% of the planets discovered.
Note: Final results will not be ready until September or October this year.
Note 2: The first true extrasolar planet (true in the sense that it has terrestrial-like composition) was found around star 51 Pegasi in 1995, nine years ago.
Note 3: The technique used to discover the likely 100 newfound planets was the new Transit method. Note that many more planets probably exist in the abovementioned scanned dome-like bulge of the Milky Way because only a small percentage of all planets have orbits perfectly aligned from the viewpoint of our planet, and this method detects only this small percentage.
Note 4: The Kepler Space Mission that would aim at discovering Eath-like planets specifically is sheduled to launch in 2006 (see link below).
The most recently developed method, detects a planet's shadow when it transits in front of its host star. This "Transit method", as it is called, works only for the small percentage of planets whose orbits happen to be perfectly aligned from our vantagepoint. It also can be used, however, on very distant stars. The transit method is expected to lead to the first detection of an Earth-size planet when it is employed by NASA's space-based Kepler observatory set to launch in 3 years.
Most of the planets found are of relatively high mass (at least 40 times that of the Earth); however, a couple seem to be approximately the size of the Earth. This reflects the current telescope technology, which is not able to detect smaller planets. The mass distribution should not be taken as a reference for a general estimate, since it is likely that many more planets with smaller mass, even in nearby solar systems, are still undetected.
The Kepler Space Mission will be launched in the next few years. It is a space-based telescope designed specifically to search large numbers of stars for Earth-sized terrestrial planets using this method.
Do you REALLY practice meditation? If your REALLY do, do you practice a GOOD method? Are you sure this is REALLY so?
thanks Vesko. I always get excited to hear news such as the one you posted.
It would be stunning to learn if only one of those planets is populated. I doubt it though. I wonder if humankind would be ready to learn of extraterrestrial life?
thanks vesko
I still vaguely remember how people use to argue "but we have ABSOLUTELY NO evidence of any planets outside of our solar system". I think all 'respectable' scientists had previously conformed to this view out of fear of ridicule.
Anybody remember this old dogma? I supposed this belief was founded on Occam's Razor
cheers,
z
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. -- Douglas Adams
Zark, thank you very much for your comment. You confirm something about astronomy which I thought I remembered falsely. I am not sure where I read it, but the only thing I'm sure it was in an authoritative text, probably an astronomy textbook published in the late eighties. Regardless, I think I read that they (scientists) thought that probably NO planets have formed and exist outside our solar system -- not only Earth-like planets, but any planets. Of course there's still a chance I don't remember correctly, but now that you say it, I say it, too. And yes, I've seen Occam's Razor applied very much in such texts. But they should also remember that:
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
-unknown
Do you REALLY practice meditation? If your REALLY do, do you practice a GOOD method? Are you sure this is REALLY so?
"The Hubble Space Telescope may have discovered as many as 100 new planets orbiting stars in our galaxy.
Hubble's harvest comes from a sweep of thousands of stars in the dome-like bulge of the Milky Way.
If confirmed it would almost double the number of planets known to be circling other stars to about 230.
The discovery will lend support to the idea that almost every sunlike star in our galaxy, and probably the Universe, is accompanied by planets."
...
"If this is confirmed, in seven days we will have doubled the number of planets known in nine years."
Steven Beckwith, Space Telescope Science Institute.
...
The astronomers expect it should be possible to study the atmospheres of between 10% and 20% of the planets discovered.
Note: Final results will not be ready until September or October this year.
Note 2: The first true extrasolar planet (true in the sense that it has terrestrial-like composition) was found around star 51 Pegasi in 1995, nine years ago.
Note 3: The technique used to discover the likely 100 newfound planets was the new Transit method. Note that many more planets probably exist in the abovementioned scanned dome-like bulge of the Milky Way because only a small percentage of all planets have orbits perfectly aligned from the viewpoint of our planet, and this method detects only this small percentage.
Note 4: The Kepler Space Mission that would aim at discovering Eath-like planets specifically is sheduled to launch in 2006 (see link below).
The most recently developed method, detects a planet's shadow when it transits in front of its host star. This "Transit method", as it is called, works only for the small percentage of planets whose orbits happen to be perfectly aligned from our vantagepoint. It also can be used, however, on very distant stars. The transit method is expected to lead to the first detection of an Earth-size planet when it is employed by NASA's space-based Kepler observatory set to launch in 3 years.
Most of the planets found are of relatively high mass (at least 40 times that of the Earth); however, a couple seem to be approximately the size of the Earth. This reflects the current telescope technology, which is not able to detect smaller planets. The mass distribution should not be taken as a reference for a general estimate, since it is likely that many more planets with smaller mass, even in nearby solar systems, are still undetected.
The Kepler Space Mission will be launched in the next few years. It is a space-based telescope designed specifically to search large numbers of stars for Earth-sized terrestrial planets using this method.
Ten years after finding the first planet outside our solar system, scientists say they may be ready to move into a new phase of planetary exploration - one that examines distant worlds for signs of Earth-like life.
So far, astronomers have discovered some 145 so-called extrasolar planets orbiting stars besides our sun.
All are gas giants like Jupiter, thought to be inhospitable to life as it is known on Earth.
But some of the world's premier planet hunters have indicated this could change in the next decade.
"Within a few years, we may be able to detect things like our own solar system," Mario Livio, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said.
That could help answer what he termed the most intriguing question in science today. Is there intelligent life anywhere besides Earth?
"The capability of seeing, detecting, planets the size of the Earth is only now just coming into our grasp," Jaymie Matthews, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia, said.
"I think we can look forward reasonably in the next decade to finding out are there Earth-size planets in Earth-like orbits going around every star," Tim Brown of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research said.
"We're going to have to wait a while to find out whether they have atmospheres."
These three were among scientists gathered last week for a symposium on a decade of research into extrasolar planets at the Space Telescope Science Institute in the United States, which deals with data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Since the first extrasolar planet was detected in 1995 around a star known as 51 Pegasi, astronomers have uncovered dozens by identifying stars that wobble because of the gravitational pull of planets around them.
They have found others by watching for a very slight dimming of stars caused by the orbiting of planets.
Camera shy
Getting even a blurry image of an extrasolar planet has proven tricky.
The closest astronomers have come is a picture of a fuzzy-looking red ball orbiting a brown dwarf 200 light years from Earth.
A light year is about 10 trillion kilometres, the distance light travels in a year.
Some astronomers said in April the ball was a confirmed extrasolar planet. Others disagree.
If it is a planet, it is no place for humans, at five times Jupiter's size and waltzing closely around the brown dwarf - a kind of failed star.
Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory, a discoverer of the first-known extrasolar planet, said he expected most normal stars to have the potential for planetary systems.
"I think it would be amazing to say that they're not around many stars, but to say that they're around every star would be I think pushing it," Mr Mayor said.
More planet discoveries would mean a larger database, which would help determine the best conditions for planet formation.
Technology is also expected to develop that would allow detection of ever-smaller planets to the size of Earth.
Already some astronomers have moved from seeking extrasolar planets to exploring those already found.
These include Mr Matthews, who works with the Canadian spacecraft known as MOST - short for Microvariability and Oscillations in Stars.
A tiny orbiting "suitcase in space", MOST watches stars with extrasolar planets to see how they dim as their planets pass.
It can also monitor the reflected light from big Jupiter-type planets circling close to their stars.
March 14, 2006 Heraldsun newspaper pg 17 (australian)
Earthly planet
An icy planet described as a large, chilly version of Earth may have been sighted in the milky Way. University of New Zealand researchers used a variant of Albert Einstein's proposed "gravitaional lensing" - harnessing stars' gravity fields as a giant natural lens - to find indications of the planet.
"The new planet is Neptune-sized and icy, but unlikely to be covered with a layer of gas like Neptune," said Dr Phillip Yock.
"Instead it may be more akin to a large, chilly version of our own Earth."
