First Pictures of Extrasolar Planets

[JediMaster 451]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/11/13/n...nets/index.html

 

I knew it would happen someday, I just didn't expect it to come from Hubble after all these years let alone a ground observatory! I thought we'd have to wait for the next-gen orbiting telescope.

[+SkippyBing 8]

I was surprised it wasn't one of the closer stars! 130 Light years is a heck of long way.

[macelena 1,070]

That´s really precious. Should appear in the mass media, in Mankind History,

but seems that a pic of Paris Hilton mid-doughnut is a morebreaking new...

 

By the grace of Norris, the new would be to find someone that didn´t see her yet, and the

best image a human can see since the discovery of America will pass out ..like tears in rain

[gbnavy61 1]

I thought we'd have to wait for the next-gen orbiting telescope.

 

That or the Starship Enterprise. I'm still holding out...

 

Very cool, though.

[Alexander51 3]

Absolutely AMAZING! At 130 light years, that's about 764,202,681,340,968.7205 miles

out Earth based telescopic systems are getting more and more capable of

detecting these extremely distant and faint objects. I, too, figured that it would come

down to either Hubble or the next generation orbiting observatories to give us most

of our direct observations. This is way cool stuff. Good posty

[+Nightshade/PR 7,932]

Well we always suspected there were other planets beyond our system; now we know. As for the "None of the planets is remotely habitable, scientists said", I'd hedge on that one. 130 Light Years is a long way to make such a call.

Now if we can just find the one my brother-in-law came from.................

[JediMaster 451]

Well, seeing as we've not proven life can exist on a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn, they're presuming from that fact.

We've yet to detect a planet close to Earth size (ie where gravity is 2x or less Earth's) in a "habitable" zone (that distance from the star corresponding to where Venus, Earth, and Mars sit), so therefore not habitable.

Could there be a planet that would allow that around those stars as well? Maybe. Could there be a moon of one of those gas giant planets that could, as Star Wars showed us? Again maybe. We don't yet have the ability to notice them, so we can't say.

 

The main reason this is significant is because until now our solar system was the only proof we really had that you can have multiple planets orbitting a star. We've detected single planets conclusively, but we've only presumed they were really "planets" and not just a failed binary star. We've never known if the presence of one such body in orbit around a star might prevent the formation of a regular solar system. There's always been this "is the solar system a unique oddity?" concern among cosmologists. The fact that we've now seen another, so close to us, indicates the probability that there are many similar others has gone up exponentially.

[Caesar 305]

As Jedi Master said, there are "habitable zones" around stars. Depending on the size and intensity of the star, this region can grow or shrink, can be wider or thinner across. So, to be habitable, a planet must first fall into this zone. After that it comes to planetary make up, etc. Venus, Earth and Mars are within the Sun's habitable zone (as Jedi Master said) but only Earth has any life, at least overtly, because of the planet's atmosphere, hot liquid iron core which generates a magnetic field, and other factors as well (we don't have an acidic atmosphere, for example, like Venus).

 

So, if they can calculate the class of the star, they can predict its habitable zone, and if these planets fall out of those zones, then there is likely no chance they are habitable.

 

Wow, I actually remembered something from Astronomy!!!

[johnrey 0]

Going to that planet is heck of a long way. It would take forever to reach that!

[JediMaster 451]

It's not on my vacation list!

[gumpy 7]

I hope their economy is better.

[eraser_tr 29]

Well it's still not sure under what conditions life can and can't exist. And also, habitable is relative to us. We couldn't live on a planet with a vastly different gravity, but what is to say other forms of life that developed there couldn't survive? it would be the "normal" gravity for them.

 

We might have discovered fossilized bacterial life on Mars, in a chunk of Mars rock discovered here. But it very easily could be contaminated, or just microscopic shapes that look like fossilized bacteria. Europa is another chance in our solar system actually, it's believed there's liquid water under the icy surface, and water is step 1 for life. Titan also is supposed to have an atmosphere very similar to the early years of Earth under which life developed.

 

A game I got not long ago (X3 terran conflict) actually has a bio of the Jupiter orbit sector saying they found life in it's atmosphere. Now 1950's SciFi life in our solar system is definitely out, but I'm still holding hopes for microbial life. Not a terribly long stretch considering the places life manages here, like undersea volcanic geysers.

[JediMaster 451]

Clarke put life on Jupiter in 2010. It was basically airborne versions of sea life like jellyfish and sharks and such but weighing next to nothing. Interesting concept we'll likely not be able to prove or disprove any time soon.