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Post by rick on Oct 12, 2009 13:25:38 GMT -4
Have they found any Extra Solar Earths?
I was browsing the database and so far I have not found anything promising.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Oct 12, 2009 13:33:09 GMT -4
Nothing that is Earth size and at the correct distance from its star to have liquid water present. But the method they are using to search is geared towards finding much larger planets.
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Post by rick on Oct 12, 2009 13:38:56 GMT -4
I heard that they found one that was not as small as earth but was pretty close. Still, there was something about it that made it unhabital.
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Post by echnaton on Oct 12, 2009 14:35:15 GMT -4
It seems only a matter of time before some candidates will be discovered. This won't do much but add confirmation to what is widely thought to be true anyway, that there a potential for other carbon based life in the universe. But it will be very cool to know that if we look a certain way in the sky, someone billions of miles away might be looking back at us.
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Post by BertL on Oct 12, 2009 15:01:50 GMT -4
Being only a layman on the subject I was wondering about the following and hoping somebody could shed some light on this.
It probably in one of those dramatized documentaries made by the National Geographic and Discovery/Science channels nowadays (although I can't point to a specific documentary) where the idea of life forms based on other 'components' was promoted. Instead of carbon based life forms like us (our genes and DNA are mostly made out of different arrangements of a combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms), the idea of life forms based on, say, silicon molecules was promoted.
It seemed not very likely to me as stellar clouds (the 'star dust', the stuff blown out by stars when they die and that come back together to create new stars and systems) consist mostly of the more primitive atoms, like hydrogen and helium, up until iron.
I did quite a bit of studying on astronomy and astrophysics in high school so I know quite a bit of that already, but I've never followed more biology classes than necessary and as such don't know anything about that.
So my question is, how plausible and likely could it be that life forms on other extrasolar planets could arise and have arisen from other components in a different environment?
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Post by rick on Oct 12, 2009 16:54:59 GMT -4
The first question, I think, to bring forth to those in the know is this. If there were any Earths out there among the systems already observed, could we detect it?
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Post by PhantomWolf on Oct 12, 2009 18:53:23 GMT -4
The most likely possible differences to us are:
Switching of the Left-Handed/Right-Handed Chiral carbons Silicon instead of carbon Possible breathing of a diferrent oxidant instead of Oxygen Copper based Blood rather than Iron based
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Post by Apollo Gnomon on Oct 12, 2009 19:14:59 GMT -4
Nothing that is Earth size and at the correct distance from its star to have liquid water present. But the method they are using to search is geared towards finding much larger planets. Kepler Mission: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_MissionI got to see the craft in the clean room. Pretty cool.
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Post by rick on Oct 12, 2009 19:38:03 GMT -4
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vq
Earth
What time is it again?
Posts: 129
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Post by vq on Oct 12, 2009 20:46:31 GMT -4
As has been mentioned, most planets discovered so far are very large and orbit close to their suns. A rocky planet somewhat close to earth in size was recently discovered, but it was so close to its parent star that its year was only a few days long.
BTW, this really doesn't belong in beyond belief IMHO; our current understanding of astronomy seems to indicate that there are probably many planets in the galaxy with masses and orbits similar to earth.
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Post by echnaton on Oct 13, 2009 10:44:51 GMT -4
While I am way short on knowledge about chemistry, I have read about silicone potential basis for life because of its ability to form multiple bonds with other atoms. What I am unsure about is how respiration could happen. In humans we breathe out carbon dioxide, but silicone dioxide is a rock, so some other form of waste disposal would be necessary. This raised my curiosity and I locates this Wikipedia article on hypothetical types of biochemistry. Ya gotta love Wikipedia.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Oct 13, 2009 12:36:39 GMT -4
I would be very excited if Kepler did locate an extrasolar "earth-like" world, but the chances of success seem rather slim.
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Post by Apollo Gnomon on Oct 13, 2009 12:51:55 GMT -4
Of course they're slim. The mission is designed specifically to "fatten" the odds, by observing a very small patch of sky continuously for the mission duration and looking for a very specific amount, duration and recurrence interval of dimming of the stars. {edit to add}... and it's spelled with one p.
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vq
Earth
What time is it again?
Posts: 129
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Post by vq on Oct 14, 2009 0:06:05 GMT -4
I would be very excited if Kepler did locate an extrasolar "earth-like" world, but the chances of success seem rather slim. Are the chances slim? I am admittedly not particularly knowledgeable of contemporary advances in planet hunting, but I was of the impression that there have not been many prior experiments capable of detecting transits of extrasolar planets with earthlike masses, diameters, orbital periods, and orbital distances. Based on the observations made so far, do astronomers have an estimate of the likely "no greater than" concentration of earthlike extrasolar planets?
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Post by randombloke on Nov 16, 2009 12:08:53 GMT -4
Our best chance for directly observing an extrasolar planet would be to build an optical VLB array on the dark side of the Moon, approximately the width of the Moon. Would have to be protected during daylight like any other optical scope, but it would be fun to see them all opening up and you'd get much longer observations. You might even be able to resolve individual continents on a near enough ESP. Plus you could build a VLB radio array in the gaps.
Interferometry is fun.
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