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The Universe, So Vast, and yet this is the Only Planet with Life on it..?

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Author Topic: The Universe, So Vast, and yet this is the Only Planet with Life on it..?  (Read 177 times)
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Dawn Moline
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« on: April 28, 2010, 12:10:46 pm »

It seems incredible.  With each new picture from the Hubble telescope, we are made aware of how vast the universe is.  And yet, the worlds we see, are, for the most part totally inhospitable to human life. 

How can it be, be it whether the universe was a creation or the result of an accident, that ours is the only planet with life on it?  What would be the point to surround us, our teeming world, with such black emptiness?
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"The unexamined life is one not worth leading."
-Plato

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Jennifer O'Dell
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« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2010, 09:25:58 am »

I don't know how they can know for sure if there is life on other worlds, other than sending a probe there. We've only had those little land rovers on Mars and the moon, so I can't figure how they would know.
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Courtney Caine
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« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2010, 11:06:48 am »

NASA was supposed to release the results of a survey on habiltable planets in the universe, but it isn't out yet.
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Courtney Caine
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« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2010, 11:08:39 am »

Icy asteroid may shed light on where Earth's water came from

By the CNN Wire Staff
April 29, 2010 4:49 a.m. EDT




The discovery of an icy asteroid in space could help explain how Earth got its water.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Report: Scientists find first evidence of water on asteroid

Organic compounds were also found on 24 Themis

Asteroids were once thought not to contain water because they were too close to sun


RELATED TOPICS
Planetary Science
Astronomy
(CNN) -- An icy asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Saturn is adding credence to theories that Earth's water was delivered from space, according to a report published in the new issue of the science journal Nature.

Two teams of scientists found their evidence when looking at 24 Themis, a asteroid about 479 million kilometers (300 million miles) from the sun, or roughly three times the average distance from Earth to the sun.

Using the infrared telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, they were surprised to find not only water on 24 Themis, but organic compounds as well.

Asteroids were thought to be devoid of water because they sit too close to the sun, while comets have been the water bearers of the universe because they form farther out in space.

"Astronomers have looked at dozens of asteroids with this technique, but this is the first time we've seen ice on the surface and organics," astronomer Andrew Rivkin of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, told Nature.com.

The scientific teams from Johns Hopkins and the University of Central Florida that looked at 24 Themis speculate that the ice may be held in a reservoir under the asteroid's surface. They speculate that the water is brought to the surface as small bodies in the asteroid belt hit the surface of 24 Themis.

The findings on 24 Themis lend weight to the idea that asteroids and comets are the source of Earth's water and organic material.

Geochemists believe that early Earth went through a molten phase that would have removed any organic molecules, meaning any new organic material would have had to come to the planet at a later time, said Humberto Campins at UCF.

"I believe our findings are linked to the origin of life on Earth," he added.

Scientists now plan to scan the asteroid belt for more evidence of water and organic materials, hoping to determine if 24 Themis is just an interloper -- possibly a comet that got caught in the asteroid belt -- or the first of many water-bearing asteroids that will change the way astronomers look at the solar system.

"The old-fashioned picture of the solar system in which asteroids are asteroids and comets are comets is getting harder to sustain," Rivkin said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/29/asteroid.water/index.html?hpt=Sbin
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Courtney Caine
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« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2010, 11:12:57 am »

32 planets discovered outside solar system
Story Highlights
"Exoplanets" found with device that detects the wobbles the planets impart on stars
Device has discovered 75 of the planets, out of about 400 known exoplanets
Team tells of more exoplanets; more study needed before formal announcement
updated 4:30 p.m. EDT, Mon October 19, 2009Next Article in Technology »


     
(CNN) -- Thirty-two planets have been discovered outside Earth's solar system through the use of a high-precision instrument installed at a Chilean telescope, an international team announced Monday.




This artist's rendering shows one of the so-called exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system.

 The existence of the so-called exoplanets -- planets outside our solar system -- was announced at the European Southern Observatory/Center for Astrophysics, University of Porto conference in Porto, Portugal, according to a statement issued by the observatory.

The announcement was made by a consortium of international researchers, headed by the Geneva Observatory, who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS. The device can detect slight wobbles of stars as they respond to tugs from exoplanets' gravity. That tactic, known as the radial velocity method, "has been the most prolific method in the search for exoplanets," according to the European Southern Observatory statement.

The instrument detects movements as small as 3.5 km/hr (2.1 mph), a slow walking pace, the observatory said.

With the discovery, the tally of new exoplanets found by HARPS is now at 75, out of about 400 known exoplanets, the organization said, "cementing HARPS's position as the world's foremost exoplanet hunter." The 75 planets are in 30 planetary systems, the European Southern Observatory said.

"HARPS is a unique, extremely high precision instrument that [is] ideal for discovering alien worlds," Stephane Udry of Geneva University, who made the announcement on behalf of the international consortium that built the instrument, said in the observatory statement. "We have now completed our initial five-year program, which has succeeded well beyond our expectations."

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"We are on the road," Udry told CNN in a phone call from Portugal. "The end of the road is finding life and other planets like our own, but we have to go step by step."

HARPS has also boosted the discovery of so-called super-Earths -- planets with a mass a few times that of Earth. Of the 28 super-Earths known, HARPS facilitated the discovery of 24, the European Southern Observatory statement said. Most reside in multiplanet systems, with up to five planets per system.

Although only 32 were announced Monday, the team knows of many more exoplanets, although more observation is needed before they are formally announced and papers are written about them. "We have tons of them," Udry said.

In return for building HARPS, the consortium was provided 100 observing nights per year over five years to search for exoplanets, one of the most ambitious searches ever implemented on a global basis, the European Southern Observatory said.

"These observations have given astronomers a great insight into the diversity of planetary system and help us understand how they can form," team member Nuno Santos said in the statement.

The HARPS findings confirm the predictions of those who study planetary formation, Udry said. "Moreover, those models are also predicting even more ... Earth-type planets."

An important find for the study of planet formation was that three exoplanets were around stars that are metal-deficient, Udry said. Metal-deficient stars are thought to be less favorable for planet formation; however, planets the size of several Jupiters were found orbiting such deficient stars, the European Southern Observatory said.

In addition, the discovery gives "a very strong push" to projects attempting to find and study such exoplanets, Udry said.

According to its Web site, the European Southern Observatory is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organization in Europe and describes itself as the "world's most productive astronomical observatory. " It is supported by 14 European countries.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/19/space.new.planets/index.html#cnnSTCText
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Guardian
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« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2010, 03:03:01 pm »

Quote
The device can detect slight wobbles of stars as they respond to tugs from exoplanets' gravity. That tactic, known as the radial velocity method, "has been the most prolific method in the search for exoplanets," according to the European Southern Observatory statement.

Sounds like a very inefficient (and unreliable) method for detecting the presence of new planets.
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Volitzer
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« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2010, 07:50:55 pm »

Let's see Venus, Earth & the moon, Mars (underground), Saturn, Ganymede, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris, Nirbiru.

All occupied by humans it is just NASA covers it all up.
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Keith Ranville
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« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2010, 09:02:25 pm »

Stephen hawking – british astrophysicist,  says to lay off the search for aliens.. Or we will end up over and out of a planet!

 Grin
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Volitzer
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« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2010, 12:05:40 am »

Yeah the New World Order can't have Earth citizens discovering life on other worlds while they build their prison control grid.
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