Saru Posted July 27, 2012 #1 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Planets orbiting a sun-like star exhibit the closest layout to that of our own solar system yet seen. he discovery supports the idea that planets emerge from relatively flat discs of material encircling stars and, at first, orbit neatly in the same plane, just as our eight planets circle the sun. This long-held notion has recently been called into question by a haul of planetary systems with wildly skewed orbits. Read more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Xetan Posted July 27, 2012 #2 Share Posted July 27, 2012 (edited) Someone call Superman. They've found Earth-2. Edited July 27, 2012 by Xetan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoIverine Posted July 27, 2012 #3 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Someone call Superman. They've found Earth-2. Hopefully they have a yellow sun, or he'll need some backup. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UsefulSoul Posted July 27, 2012 #4 Share Posted July 27, 2012 These solar systems are all over the place. Unfortunately, our best methods for detecting exoplanets are proven ineffective (for the most part) when we are looking for planets as small as earth. That's why we detect so many super-earths, but so few solar systems like this. If we optimized photometry or found a better method all together, I believe we'd see thousands if not millions (billions? trillions?) of solar systems like this one. fun stuff. what's next? :alien: :alien: :alien: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud the mackem Posted July 27, 2012 #5 Share Posted July 27, 2012 These solar systems are all over the place. Unfortunately, our best methods for detecting exoplanets are proven ineffective (for the most part) when we are looking for planets as small as earth. That's why we detect so many super-earths, but so few solar systems like this. If we optimized photometry or found a better method all together, I believe we'd see thousands if not millions (billions? trillions?) of solar systems like this one. fun stuff. what's next? :alien: :alien: :alien: Agreed,all we need now is someone to invent Light Speed Drive,then we can pop out and see them.cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Fluffs Posted July 27, 2012 #6 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I'll fly their next week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted July 27, 2012 #7 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Unfortunately, our best methods for detecting exoplanets are proven ineffective (for the most part) when we are looking for planets as small as earth. That's why we detect so many super-earths, but so few solar systems like this. Not entirely true. As someone claiming to be a scientist you should be aware of the dangers of leaping to conclusions before the data is collected. No one ever won a Nobel prize that way. To claim the methods are ineffective when the search is only a few years old is neither good science or logic. Larger planets are easier to find WHATEVER method you use, hence larger planets will ALWAYS be over represented. The same is true of planets orbiting close to their stars, hence a disproportionate amount of planetary discoveries WILL be hot Jupiters. However this is understood and statistical methods can be used to calculate the actual frequency of planetary types. As you have referred to photometry I assume you are talking about the transit method (spectrometry is used for the radial velocity method). Photometers are not, currently, the limiting factor in detecting planets transiting their parent star, the earth's atmosphereis. Hence space based observations are the way to discover such planets. As the first dedicated satellite for this purpose, COROT, was only launched in 2006 and the first with the sensitivity to find Earth sized planets, Kepler, was not launched until 2009 it stands to reason that we have not found many Earth sized planets so far. Despite this, as of 11th December 2012, of the 2,326 planetary candidates found by Kepler, 207 are Earth sized. In short, there is nothing wrong with the methods, it is just that the search is in its infancy. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csspwns Posted July 28, 2012 #8 Share Posted July 28, 2012 we have reached the speed of sound but lightspeed will probably take a bit of work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted July 28, 2012 #9 Share Posted July 28, 2012 we have reached the speed of sound but lightspeed will probably take a bit of work It doesn't matter how much work you put in, you still can't achieve the impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolci Posted July 28, 2012 #10 Share Posted July 28, 2012 comparing reaching the speed of sound with reaching the speed of light is not only useless, it's also meaningless. The speed of shockwaves on the surface of our planet is merely a property of our atmosphere, and changes with the local pressure, temperature, composition of the air, etc, so it's not constant even on our planet, and speeds on the surfaces of different planets will be widely different from one another. What it is on our planet is meaningless, it could be anything else, then what. Say if it was 100m/s, we would've reached it long before we did with it being what it is. Besides, it's nowhere near lightspeed, so achieving one has no indication of possibilities or probabilities of reaching the other within any kind of timeframe. As to what's possible and what's impossible, if the history of our science has had anything to teach us know-it-alls, then it's that if we think it's impossible based on what we think we know, chances are it's very possible and it's only a matter of time and a bit of humility to open our minds and we'll find otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Fluffs Posted July 28, 2012 #11 Share Posted July 28, 2012 It doesn't matter how much work you put in, you still can't achieve the impossible. Impossible is 2 letters too long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felines3 Posted July 28, 2012 #12 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artaxerxes Posted July 28, 2012 #13 Share Posted July 28, 2012 You can let me off at the first M class planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud the mackem Posted July 28, 2012 #14 Share Posted July 28, 2012 These clones pop up everywhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted July 29, 2012 #15 Share Posted July 29, 2012 (edited) Impossible is 2 letters too long. Not when describing travel at light speed, it is exactly the correct length. Unfortunately we don't get to decide what is possible or not, the universe has already decided that. The laws of physics can not be repealed by mankind. I will add this caveat; although we can not break or change the laws of physics our understanding of them can change. It is possible that relativity may prove to be wrong, or not the whole anser. However it has passed every test so far and hence the best information we have is that any object posseing mass can not reach the speed of light. Edited July 29, 2012 by Waspie_Dwarf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMacGuffin Posted August 1, 2012 #16 Share Posted August 1, 2012 (edited) I am the last person to insist that what we call science today is going to be the last word. Judging by the just the last few centuries, I wouldn't even hazard a guess about what "science" will mean 500 or 1,000 years from now. I can't imagine. Edited August 1, 2012 by TheMacGuffin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted August 1, 2012 #17 Share Posted August 1, 2012 I am the last person to insist that what we call science today is going to be the last word. Judging by the just the last few centuries, I wouldn't even hazard a guess about what "science" will mean 500 or 1,000 years from now. I can't imagine. Science is a methodology, a logical way of discovering and understanding. In that sense science will mean exactly the same as it does now in 500, 1,000 or 10,000 years. What it has discovered and what we understand as a result of science, that no one can imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramelin Posted August 2, 2012 #18 Share Posted August 2, 2012 It doesn't matter how much work you put in, you still can't achieve the impossible. It's indeed impossible... NOW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junior Chubb Posted August 2, 2012 #19 Share Posted August 2, 2012 It doesn't matter how much work you put in, you still can't achieve the impossible. Didn't you post a thread recently about an impossible find becoming possible? Anyway light-speed, I feel confident on breaking that. Especially when I am wearing my Adidas tracksuit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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