Earth-like planets likely more common, than thought

[zengrifter]

Public release date: 7-Sep-2006

Contact: Sean Raymond
raymond@lasp.colorado.edu

Earth-like planets may be more common than once thought,
says new U. of Colorado-Penn State study

More than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside Earth's solar system may harbor Earth-like planets, many covered in deep oceans with potential for life, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder and Pennsylvania State University.

The study focuses on a type of planetary system unlike our solar system that contains gas giants known as "Hot Jupiters" orbiting extremely close to their parent stars -- even closer than Mercury to our sun, said CU-Boulder researcher Sean Raymond. Such gas giants are believed to have migrated inward toward their parent stars as the planetary systems were forming, disrupting the space environment and triggering the formation of ocean-covered, Earth-like planets in a "habitable zone" conducive to the evolution of life, according to the new study.

"Exotic Earths: Forming Habitable Worlds with Giant Planet Migration" was published in the Sept. 8 issue of Science and authored by Raymond, Avi Mandell of both Penn State and Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Steinn Sigurdsonn of NASA's Goddard Center.

The study indicates Hot Jupiters push and pull proto-planetary disk material during their journeys, flinging rocky debris outward where it is likely to coalesce into Earth-like planets, said Raymond. At the same time, turbulent forces from the dense surrounding gas slow down the orbits of small, icy bodies in the outer reaches of the disk, causing them to spiral inward and deliver water to the fledgling planets. Such planets may eventually host oceans several miles deep, according to the study.

"These gas giants cause quite a ruckus," said Raymond of CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. "We now think there is a new class of ocean-covered, and possibly habitable, planets in solar systems unlike our own."

...continued here - http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-epm090506.php

[ranran]

More than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside Earth's solar system may harbor Earth-like planets, many covered in deep oceans with potential for life, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder and Pennsylvania State University.

May be, might be, could be. Possible, probable. Call me when they get more concrete answers.

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by ranran

May be, might be, could be. Possible, probable. Call me when they get more concrete answers.

Here's my concrete answer - the earth has been teeming with extraterrestrials for hundreds of thousands of years. zg

-------------
Fermi's Paradox

Fermi's Paradox I: Our Galaxy Should Be Teeming With Civilizations, But Where Are They?

Seth Shostak, Astronomer, Pheonix Project

Summary: Is there obvious proof that we could be alone in the Galaxy? Enrico Fermi thought so -- and he was a pretty smart guy. Might he have been right?

Is there obvious proof that we could be alone in the Galaxy? Enrico Fermi thought so -- and he was a pretty smart guy. Might he have been right?

It's been a hundred years since Fermi, an icon of physics, was born (and nearly a half-century since he died). He's best remembered for building a working atomic reactor in a squash court. But in 1950, Fermi made a seemingly innocuous lunchtime remark that has caught and held the attention of every SETI researcher since. (How many luncheon quips have you made with similar consequence?)

The remark came while Fermi was discussing with his mealtime mates the possibility that many sophisticated societies populate the Galaxy. They thought it reasonable to assume that we have a lot of cosmic company. But somewhere between one sentence and the next, Fermi's supple brain realized that if this was true, it implied something profound. If there are really a lot of alien societies, then some of them might have spread out.

...continued here - http://www.global-conspiracies.com/fermis_paradox.htm

[ranran]

May be, might be, could be. Possible, probable. Call me when they get more concrete answers.

That's what you call PROOF?!?!?!

Bullsh*t!!!

That article was full of mights, coulds and maybes

Until and unless better evidence is collected, few scientists are inclined to accept the premise that the Fermi Paradox can be resolved by the claim that aliens are either soaring through the stratosphere, or are stashed away in meat lockers at Area 51.

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by ranran

That's what you call PROOF?!?!?!

I didn't say "proof" I said "My concrete answer". But there is lots of reasonable "proof" if you are willing to see it. zg

[ranran]

Originally Posted by zengrifter

I didn't say "proof" I said "My concrete answer". But there is lots of reasonable "proof" if you are willing to see it. zg

Oh, my bad. Your concrete answer is that such a thing might be possible.

Here's my concrete answer - the earth has been teeming with extraterrestrials for hundreds of thousands of years. zg

And you know this how?

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by ranran

Oh, my bad. Your concrete answer is that such a thing might be possible. And you know this how?

Call it my intuitive leap based on research and hypothesis. zg

[ranran]

the earth has been teeming with extraterrestrials for hundreds of thousands of years. zg

Call it my intuitive leap based on research and hypothesis.

There's this silly little thing called the scientific method.

But there is lots of reasonable "proof" if you are willing to see it.

OK, let's see it

[supercoolmancool]

Originally Posted by ranran

There's this silly little thing called the scientific method.


OK, let's see it

Check this site out. I found it while I was doing some homework: http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=2805

And then here is a presentation that I attended 2 years ago written down word for word. He very convincingly "proves" that we are being visited through new declassified government documents obtained via the freedom of information act.
http://www.freedomdomain.com/ufo/ufo02.html

[ranran]

Only 10 years before Orson
Wells' realistic radio play _War of the Worlds_ had caused
thousands of unsuspecting people to flee their homes in terror
believing that Martians had invaded and were destroying Earth
civilization.

The reason people went nuts was due to the fact that nobody mentioned the story was fictional. It was presenteed as if it were a news story.