Intelligent Alien Life found by 2040

[scowl]

So it is theory that an earth like planet is not possible anywherre in the galaxy?

Yes, it is possible that there is not another Earth-like planet anywher[r]e in the galaxy. We don't know and don't have a way of knowing at this point.

If we had not found many planets orbiting other stars, that would have made it less likely that there are Earth-like planets and that the formation of our solar system was somehow unique. Since we have found many of these planets, that has now made it more likely. Remember that is a probability relative to an unknown value. x times one hundred is better than x times one, but we don't know the actual value.

What I don't like is that the study of exoplanets is being sold as "The Search for Another Earth!" We have no ability to find another Earth in these distant solar systems and it's not likely we ever will. What we can do (finally) is study these distant solar systems and get a better understanding of how they are formed.

Unfortunately nothing could be more uninteresting to the general public. Most people would rather have a heart attack than hear about the eccentric orbits of planets around double stars. That's why articles like the one about Kepler-413b have to fool people into thinking they're about to read about an Earth-like planet with crazy seasons when in fact they're about to read about a gas giant.

[Merc14]

Yes, it is possible that there is not another Earth-like planet anywher[r]e in the galaxy. We don't know and don't have a way of knowing at this point.

If we had not found many planets orbiting other stars, that would have made it less likely that there are Earth-like planets and that the formation of our solar system was somehow unique. Since we have found many of these planets, that has now made it more likely. Remember that is a probability relative to an unknown value. x times one hundred is better than x times one, but we don't know the actual value.

What I don't like is that the study of exoplanets is being sold as "The Search for Another Earth!" We have no ability to find another Earth in these distant solar systems and it's not likely we ever will. What we can do (finally) is study these distant solar systems and get a better understanding of how they are formed.

Unfortunately nothing could be more uninteresting to the general public. Most people would rather have a heart attack than hear about the eccentric orbits of planets around double stars. That's why articles like the one about Kepler-413b have to fool people into thinking they're about to read about an Earth-like planet with crazy seasons when in fact they're about to read about a gas giant.

So we really aren't all that far apart at all. I think teh chances are good tehre are a few earth like planets out there because we have gone from a possible sample size of thousands to billions. It is posible there are no earth like planets but the fact that the sample of possible planets is so radically increased, I think, changes everything.

[scowl]

So we really aren't all that far apart at all.

Not at all. Neither of us has a clue!

But remember... nothing has changed in the universe. There are x number of Earth-like planets (whatever that means) right now and the discovery of exoplanets hasn't changed the value of x. The only thing has changed is the likelihood that x is greater than 1 and even that hasn't changed much because no one had proposed a theory that would suggest other stars wouldn't also have approximately Earth-sized planets orbiting at roughly AU distances.