Hubble finds 100 more exo-solar planets!!!

there's no questions alien life exists

it's just a question if we are or were or soon to be alive at the same time frame that they are alive


and intelligent life is further complicated because our 2 planets must reach peak intelligence to actually communicate if we are so lucky that distance or technology doesn't prevent it

Are they actually going to name all the 230 planets they find? That must be a boring job.

Planet Gankdawg.

229 to go.

Planet Bob

228 to go.

Planet RYJU

227 to go!

Planet Porn Bazar.

226 to go!

Planet They've Got Our Oil! a.k.a Star Wars Episode VII.

225 left to go!

Kobol.

That planet already exists. It's called "Internet."

Planet SteveJobs
223 to go

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/co...255E663,00.html

Some more awesome news. Cassini flyby of Titan found that the atmosphere may be composed of mostly organic matter, with pure water ice on its surface! Titan has the biggest possability of life so far, even more compelling evidence than Mars.

Well, maybe, if life can thrive at -228f

There are hints of tectonics as well. If this proves out, hot spots on Titan would prove an excellent place for life. Still. I think there is a better chance of life on Mars or under Europa's surface but we'll see.

I'm excited about the Europa ice drilling probe/submersable. I can't wait till that sucker gets going. Can you imagine pictures of an alien sea? Our own sea carries some funky critters, I can't imagine what Europa might have.

Unfortunately, all these planets are already taken by Mormons. Gonna have to find a lot more.

Planet Theolein, King Of The Universe. It's the planet up there on the left.

222 to go.

Actually, I think most planets are named something like "R345J-53Q." Not as much fun as Star Trek...

Planet Bizarre Porn.

221 to go!

LV-426.

220 to go.

This is a cool year for space exploration - not one but two rovers on Mars, Cassini and Huygens at Saturn and Titan, Spaceship One reaching space, Hubble doing the usual amazing stuff...

What's unbelievable is that Nasa are talking about letting Hubble fall out of orbit ?! This is probably the most important scientific instrument ever created by man, and we won't have a replacement ready for years. They've got to do everything they can to keep it operational.

That's the whole reason there's a new amazing announcent by the hubble folks every week. Yea, it does suck that the next telescope isn't going up for a while, but the hubble people are just timing these releases to get more press.

Planet "Far Far Away"

and

Planet "No Life here - move on Earthling"

218 to go.

I knew someone would get it

Planet: Funky! my Ass Planet.

217 to go.

my dad's an astronomer, this stuff is great. i told him about the article i just read. All the planets being discovered are *bigger* than jupiter. We don't have the technology to see planets much smaller than that. Only a matter of time. I'm wondering if the gravity of some of these planets are too strong for bigger creatures to live. If these planets are bigger than jupiter and have liquid water, chances are that the organisms are pretty small (say, microscopic), maybe flat. Also remember that to have liquid water it has to be an appropriate distance from the sun. Even then, it doesn't guarantee that the planet will have a breatheable (sp?) atmosphere. Then again, who's to say that all living organisms in existence have to live the same way they do on Earth. Do all living things *need* water or is there some other subsitute?

Our sun has 9 planets revolving around it. There are billions of stars, just like our sun, in the galaxy. There are undoubtedly billions of planets around those stars. There are billions of galaxies in a universe. There are perhaps multi-verses (multiple universes--new theory). The chances for life, big and small, intelligent and not, are endless. There HAS to be life on other planets. I just hope we're smarter than them (lol). Of course we wouldn't be smarter than all aliens (i think i'm drifting into science-fictionesque pondering), our earth is 4.6 billion years old, and the universe is several billion years older. That means that there could be, just like star wars says (hehe, so cool to think about), extinct highly advanced races and present day (a day is relative in the universe, heh) advanced creatures that have lived for billions of years. Anything. If you've thought of it, it's probably happened. If you've dreamed of it, it's probably been invented. (all speculation of course, but it's fun to imagine). I remember watching one of my dad's astronomy videos and the astronomer saying, "Sometimes, I wonder if when I'm staring at the universe (through the telescope) that someone is staring back." Interesting.

It's only a matter of time before we discover life on other planets and have the means to travel there. Just like Einstein said, "Move over, Newton," for his new theories, another genius scientist will say, "Move over, Einstein," for his new theories. How long before we discover there's something faster than light? Oh, probably a good 50-200 years or so. How long before we discover how to go faster than light? oh, probably a good millenia or so.


You guys probably have thought of a lot of it...but it's so awsome to think that there could be a real life starwars out there taking place. Or a real life "independence day", where the aliens plunder the resources on each planet and wipe out other species.

I can dream, can't I?

What people don't seem to understand is that Einstein's theories aren't a replacement for Newton's; they're a refinement. Newtonian mechanics are plenty accurate for most things, and we use relativity when more precision is required. Any new theory must reduce to relativity or Newtonian mechanics for the limits that the two are applicable. Given that, I think faster-than-light travel, if possible, will still be impossible for us since we are, and always will be, adequately described by Newtonian mechanics. There is no way around that.

Keep dreaming, but I think the romance of faster-than-light travel makes people lose touch with reality.

obviously it's impossible (right now) to travel the speed of light. unless we turn to energy, it isn't happening.

i'm sure you have much more knowledge about the subject (i'm still in 10th grade), but I think it's pretty early to say it's absolutely impossible.

Theories about limits (such as speed) have been ongoing for hundreds of years. It's presumptive to say we've found out the peak speed this early in human history. Just like scientists have discovered "dark matter" (the invisible matter that is making the universe speed up fast er and farther away from each other) and up to ten dimensions (or is it 11?), nwhole new factors will be discovered constantly that could alter how everything else is explained. If nothing related to the subject are discovered from here until the end of mankind, then ****, we're in our golden age of all mankind already (</sarcasm>)!

1000 years from now there could be a technology so different from what we consider orthodox today. Tens, if not hundreds, of new theories regarding the subject will have been produced by then.

From my quick google search, there is a constant debate on whether there is a speed faster than light http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physi...html#conclusion

The thing about science is that scientists make discoveries on the foundation of previous discoveries. Newton didn't have the access to new theories that Einstein did, and Einstein won't have access to the new theories that future scientists do. Future scientists might have to alter Einstein's theories just like previous scientists had to alter Galileo's. If Galileo had lived in a later period, he might not have made his heliocentric theory (the sun is the center of the universe), but based on what scientific information was available to him at the time, his heliocentric theory was pretty damn good.

You can't count out what you don't know.

Your in 10th Grade...

I feel ancient.

Planet Zakbor-9! ...now we just need some Spaceman Spiff to explore the cosmos for us to find weird things.

Awwww.... But I want to see Vulcans NOW!

You're absolutely right; there's always a chance. Just realize that any new theory has to be compatible with current (successful) theories on the scales for which they are applicable. Given that, my gut tells me that we will never be able to travel faster than the speed of light.

In other words, I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

You have a very smart gut. i won't hold my breath. My gggggggreeat great humanoid maneating robot grandchildren will, though

Right. After hangin' out in the MacNN forums for a while, there is no doubt about it.



-t

Yeah, it's been 15 years since I was in 10th grade.... back before we had space telescopes! We would hold up one of those McDonalds glasses to the heavens and pretend we saw stuff.

No worries about being in 10th grade, don't let the others get you down to much. They're a funny crew on some days...

... and pretty sick on others

As for FTL, there are some fairly solid theories that it is possible. Here's one link about the Alcubierre drive, which has since been refined by Chris van den Broek. I personally think it's great that you at least have the imagination and interest to think about these things.

If they're robots then they won't have to hold their breath at all.

Didn't see that one coming, did you?

they're humanoid robots!....half human/ half robot.... they breathe ...to um...dust their gears....

I read a great non-fiction book by Asimov that basically says that, because the number of possible worlds is literally astronomical, the % chance of life would have to be vanishingly small in order for there not to be thousands of civilisations out there. Civilisations - not just life, or intelligent life.

The real killer though is that we'll probably never meet any of them.

That's interesting...what's this book called..?

Not the "Bible," that's for sure.

These large jupiter-sized planets are not like earth or mars. They are gaseous, so if they support life I assume it is in a much a different form than what we can imagine.

It seems one of the reasons that hubble is going to die is because Bush pushing this moon/mars thing, and starving the rest of nasa. This whole manned mars trip is retarded. Hubble has provided us with so much more valuable information, the strongest telescope known to man, and Bush has no clue.

hopefully the fires in arizona don't take out the new telescope, when online, will be 10x stronger than hubble...

while the structure won't burn, damage to optics and electronics is possible from smoke, etc. there was an article on it on cnn.com yesterday or the day before.

oh, here is the info on the new, almost online scope...

http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbto/

the facility already has two smaller ones online.

I just hope they're smarter than US, so they've progressed beyond petty crap like wars about territory and religion. Hopefully they concentrate on important things like music and art, exploration and science. I'd love to have a leaf through their record collections

Some are terrestrial, even at the size of Jupiter.



Sort of, but mostly because of the Discovery.

10 times stronger than hubble, but limited to Earth. At mercy to earth's weather (even on clear days the atmosphere distorts telescopes much more than if they were in space).



this is true.

yeah, but on earth, you can repair it cheaper. it was built cheaper. and it is private, not at the mercy of the government cutting funding and deciding we don't need it.


but all things considered...it will be better than anything hubble can 'see'.

I'll ask my dad what he thinks, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be as powerful as hubble. Powerful is the wrong word, it's without a doubt more powerful, but the clarity of the pictures might not be as good. I agree with your other points