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One in Five Stars Has Earth-sized Planet


Waspie_Dwarf

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One in Five Stars Has Earth-sized Planet in Habitable Zone

Waimea, Hawaii – Scientists from University of California, Berkeley, and University of Hawaii, Manoa, have statistically determined that twenty percent of Sun-like stars in our galaxy have Earth-sized planets that could host life. The findings, gleaned from data collected from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft and the W. M. Keck Observatory, now satisfy Kepler's primary mission: to determine how many of the 100 billion stars in our galaxy have potentially habitable planets. The results are being published November 4 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
corrected title.
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A universe teeming with life would be a wondrous thing, I admire those that are dedicating their careers to these discoveries.

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A universe teeming with life would be a wondrous thing

I think Arthur C. Clarke summed it up rather nicely:

Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
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I think Arthur C. Clarke summed it up rather nicely:

I see his point - to a point. An expanse the size of the Universe, empty and devoid of life and then just us in one itty bitty corner - terrifies me more.

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Amazing how the predominant thought on this has changed just in my lifetime. Billions of earth like planets out there in our galaxy alone is an incredible thing to think about and even though we can't reach them now it gives one hope or thefuture.

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Mankind is capable of achieving great things one step at a time even it means defying Gods will.

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Knowing that there are others would be a comfort,... I just wish we could find a way to "get out there."

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I'm frankly doubtful that there are many planets that we could survive on naked.

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The Universe was made for life. There is a consciousness that permeates the Universe, the great Creator, that directs the Universe like a great Orchestra conductor.

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Mankind is capable of achieving great things one step at a time even it means defying Gods will.

Yes, but God gave mankind free will, so He knew that we would be inquisitive. We were made that way, weren't we?

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People, we have sections for theological debate, this isn't one of them. Can we stick to the science side here and debate the existence of deities in the Spirituality, Religion and Beliefs and Spirituality vs Skepticism sections.

Thank you.

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I'm frankly doubtful that there are many planets that we could survive on naked.

Define "not many".

If just 0.0001% of planets within the habitable zone have conditions where we could survive naked there would still be 80,000 planets in our galaxy alone.

Besides there are a fair few regions on Earth where you wouldn't survive naked for long.

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Wouldn't it be dandy if we figured out how to coexist on this world before we screw up another?

Taking into account that we aren't actually capable of reaching any of these planets yet your comment is relevant how exactly?

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I bet there is plenty of life on these planets humans on one.

Dino's on others aliens on some to

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As our abilities to more accurately probe these planets becomes more sophisticated, the opportunity to compare the probabilistic events that led to the emergence of man on Earth as compared to environmentally identical worlds should yield rather interesting insights relative to randomness of brief cataclysmic events and those of subtle but sustained evolution.

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Just because WE HUMANS can't survive naked on a planet it doesn't make it inhabitable for life. I bet there are only a handful that are like Earth.

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I'm doubtful we will find much in the way of "advanced" life, since if it were common it seems we should already have seen various sorts of signs of it. However, earth-like or nearly earth-like planets that we can adapt to hold no end of wonderful possibility, so long as they are not already occupied.

If they are already occupied, they may be off bounds for us as the chemistries almost certainly will not be able to tolerate each other, and interfering with local evolution would hold huge moral consequences.

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Man...this is exciting! I can invision in a 1000 years a Star Trek type of scenario lol.

Just because WE HUMANS can't survive naked on a planet it doesn't make it inhabitable for life. I bet there are only a handful that are like Earth.

Agreed. This also solves the whole 'habitable zone' argument. Just because it's uninhabitable to us doesn't mean some other species could not have evolved on it.

I'm doubtful we will find much in the way of "advanced" life, since if it were common it seems we should already have seen various sorts of signs of it. However, earth-like or nearly earth-like planets that we can adapt to hold no end of wonderful possibility, so long as they are not already occupied.

If they are already occupied, they may be off bounds for us as the chemistries almost certainly will not be able to tolerate each other, and interfering with local evolution would hold huge moral consequences.

The ol' Prime Directive huh. Unless there is some change when we start deep space travel..I doubt moral consequences will stop humans from doing anything. Just look at the history of our species.

Also, I wouldn't say there isn't much 'advanced life'. We haven't even really began to look for it yet.

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We have a tendency to think that planets must be earth-like to sustain life? .. and that Life forms would be ' familiar ' . Maybe ... maybe not.

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We have a tendency to think that planets must be earth-like to sustain life? .. and that Life forms would be ' familiar ' . Maybe ... maybe not.

Not for lack of trying but no one has proposed a chemistry other than the one based on carbon chains that seems like it would work at all well in living things. For that reason you need water in a liquid state and hence certain temperatures and pressures. Whether the similarities need go further (such as using amino acids) is less assured, but it seems likely.
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Not for lack of trying but no one has proposed a chemistry other than the one based on carbon chains that seems like it would work at all well in living things. For that reason you need water in a liquid state and hence certain temperatures and pressures. Whether the similarities need go further (such as using amino acids) is less assured, but it seems likely.

Thank you Frank, hm.. i see!

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