Five earth size planets found

[Chris]

CNN) -- Are we alone in the universe? Findings by NASA's Kepler space telescope are making that seem less likely.

NASA scientists have announced Kepler has spotted five planets about the size of Earth, orbiting stars in our galaxy.

These planets are orbiting in what is known as the habitable zone, which puts them at a distance from their suns where liquid water could exist. Liquid water is a key ingredient for life to form.

"In a generation we have gone from extraterrestrial planets being a mainstay of science fiction, to the present, where Kepler has helped turn science fiction into today's reality," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Kepler space telescope spots five Earth-sized planets in our galaxy - CNN.com

 

[rdean]

Scientists, I thought they were lazy? Guess not.

 

[DiveCon]

calling them "earth sized" is not exactly the truth

 

[saveliberty]

I hope they have outgrown texting there.

 

[boedicca]

Scientists, I thought they were lazy? Guess not.

The planets were discovered by the 6% who aren't lazy.

 

[saveliberty]

Scientists, I thought they were lazy? Guess not.

If they weren't so lazy, we would have a complete list of all their alcoholic beverages.

 

[Trajan]

can we rape them for their resources? If not, can we bombard them with regulations?

 

[boedicca]

I prefer a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" type of solution. Let's tell all the worthless parasites such as career politicians, lobbyists, community organizers, the ladies of The View, etc. that Earth is going to be hit by a big asteroid and we are evacuating. Put them all on ships as the first phase, telling them they are the most important to save. Send them to one of the planets, and then update the earth's firewall to block their signals as spam.

 

[DiveCon]

I prefer a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" type of solution. Let's tell all the worthless parasites such as career politicians, lobbyists, community organizers, the ladies of The View, etc. that Earth is going to be hit by a big asteroid and we are evacuating. Put them all on ships as the first phase, telling them they are the most important to save. Send them to one of the planets, and then update the earth's firewall to block their signals as spam.

 

[saveliberty]

I prefer a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" type of solution. Let's tell all the worthless parasites such as career politicians, lobbyists, community organizers, the ladies of The View, etc. that Earth is going to be hit by a big asteroid and we are evacuating. Put them all on ships as the first phase, telling them they are the most important to save. Send them to one of the planets, and then update the earth's firewall to block their signals as spam.

Remember that when they make first contact with us.

 

[boedicca]

Oh Puhleeeze. Most of them will die out after the supplies run out. The remainder will revert to cannibalism (for real instead of their current figurative mode) and hunting and gathering.

They have no practical sKillZ.

 

[whitehall]

The words "In our galaxy" may or may not be intended to promote funding for further research. The dirty little secret is that it is meaningless. We can't travel at the speed of light and if we could it would take....gulp....the time since the birth of Christ to get to the nearest earth like entity which might not be there when we get there.. The "discoveries" are pretty little lights in the sky and nothing more important than Native American Indians saw two hundred years ago before we poluted the sky with modern lights.

 

[Old Rocks]

The words "In our galaxy" may or may not be intended to promote funding for further research. The dirty little secret is that it is meaningless. We can't travel at the speed of light and if we could it would take....gulp....the time since the birth of Christ to get to the nearest earth like entity which might not be there when we get there.. The "discoveries" are pretty little lights in the sky and nothing more important than Native American Indians saw two hundred years ago before we poluted the sky with modern lights.

Oh my, and less than a century ago, we could not travel from one continent to another in the space of a day. We could not communicate with each other in the blink of an eye, as we are doing now, at the time I was born. In fact, at that time the most advanced computer in the world was in use in England for decoding military codes.

When will learn to get around the 'C' limitation? I don't know. Some young genius may be right now penning the math that will allow us to do this. We know so litttle yet of how the universe works.

 

[Grace]

I'd like to think we aren't alone. I'd also like to think someone out there is much more evolved than us that could teach a thing or three. I hope WE don't discover anything close enough to get to. I'm pretty much in agreement with Smith on The Matrix when he said:


I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.

 

[Old Rocks]

calling them "earth sized" is not exactly the truth

Hmm...... A 'Mission of Gravity, by Hal Clement.

 

[Chris]

NASA said that the Kepler mission has uncovered 1,235 star-orbiting potential planets.

However, out of the 54 new planets Kepler has found in the habitable zone, just five are Earth-sized. Many of them are much bigger, from super-Earth size, which is nearly twice the size of the blue planet, to bigger then Jupiter.

"For the first time in human history we have a pool of potentially rocky habitable zone planets," M.I.T.'s Sara Seager, who is involved with the mission, told the New York Times. "This is the first big step forward to answering the ancient question, 'How common are other earths?'"

Kepler's findings, which were made between May and September 2009, cover just about 1/400 of the sky, NASA said.

NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Earth-like Planets | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

 

[DiveCon]

calling them "earth sized" is not exactly the truth

Hmm...... A 'Mission of Gravity, by Hal Clement.

so, that little white dot representing Earth, is the same size as the rest of those?

 

[Montrovant]

I prefer a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" type of solution. Let's tell all the worthless parasites such as career politicians, lobbyists, community organizers, the ladies of The View, etc. that Earth is going to be hit by a big asteroid and we are evacuating. Put them all on ships as the first phase, telling them they are the most important to save. Send them to one of the planets, and then update the earth's firewall to block their signals as spam.

Any Hitchhiker's reference is a good thing!

 

[westwall]

I prefer a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" type of solution. Let's tell all the worthless parasites such as career politicians, lobbyists, community organizers, the ladies of The View, etc. that Earth is going to be hit by a big asteroid and we are evacuating. Put them all on ships as the first phase, telling them they are the most important to save. Send them to one of the planets, and then update the earth's firewall to block their signals as spam.

Oh gosh, I like that, I really do!

 

[westwall]

The words "In our galaxy" may or may not be intended to promote funding for further research. The dirty little secret is that it is meaningless. We can't travel at the speed of light and if we could it would take....gulp....the time since the birth of Christ to get to the nearest earth like entity which might not be there when we get there.. The "discoveries" are pretty little lights in the sky and nothing more important than Native American Indians saw two hundred years ago before we poluted the sky with modern lights.

Actually Einsteins calculations allow for FTL travel. He hated the fact that they did but they do for all of that. Also we have actually teleported light photons, something that was left to the realm of Star Trek by most. I would love to see more funding going to astronomy and space travel than wasted on GW crap here on Earth.