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NASA / JPL
An artist's conception shows an alien Earthlike planet.
I should have known it was too good to be true: Last month, it looked as if a world known as KOI 326.01 was the best hope among the Kepler mission's 1,235 candidates to be a second Earth. It was thought to be a bit smaller than Earth, and even better, it was located in a "habitable zone." That's the area of space surrounding a star where water could plausibly exist in liquid form. Those two characteristics — smaller than Earth, and in the habitable zone — put KOI 326.01 in a class by itself.
No more, unfortunately. A fact-checker at Discover magazine, Mara Grunbaum, called up the Kepler team for more information about the planet, presumably because it was going to be featured in a future issue. Members of the team, including San Jose State University's Natalie Batalha, double-checked their figures and determined that the planet candidate is actually somewhat warmer and much larger than originally estimated.
"The details of the planet need to be hammered out, but this certainly means that this is not an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone," Batalha is quoted as saying in a posting to the 80 Beats blog, part of Discover magazine's corner of the blogosphere. You can get the whole story behind KOI 326.01's demotion there.
That's the way it goes with these Kepler candidates: As more observations are gathered, checked and double-checked, the basic statistics for any particular candidate may need to be revised. And in some cases, the "candidate" may not exist at all. Instead, the supposed planetary detection may turn out to be merely the effect of two stars passing in front of each other. It will take months or years more to turn those candidates into confirmed planetary detections. But if you're hoping to hear about alien Earths, don't give up hope yet. Kepler's hunt continues.
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Slightly disappointing, but alas, twas not meant to be. At least there are other possibilities.
billions of other possibilities to be exact ;)
When I read what you wrote the voice of Carl (Karl?) Sagan rang in my head, saying "Billions... and Billions..."
His was such a distinctive voice, wasn't it Chickenmann?
Carl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc
I never saw Sagan's "Cosmos" series until recently (you can add it to your instant queue on Netflix).
Good stuff, even 30 years after it originally aired.
OH MY GOD! That song was friggin amazing!! Thank you Michael for posting that, that really made my day. So cool!!
OOops, You never checked if I can show you images of people on Titan and one animal and much more.
That is a BIG OOPS because it is understandable that no one would believe me but I can not only prove life on another planet/Moon but I can prove many other things because of this discovery BUT !
OOPS Science get's no where again.
Yea Science has definitely gotten you nowhere in life. (sarcasm off)
If you are so confident, why not post links to these pictures? ;)
Shut up Charlie Sheen
We have only just scratched the surface of the Kepler data, and there are petabytes remaining to come. This is an expected outcome of the data reduction. Since we have already demonstrated rather clearly that planets are pretty much a dime a dozen out there (and, mind you, Kepler is practically looking through a straw, as related to the entire sky), there will be many, many other such good candidates down the road...and one of them WILL stick. One of them will stick so well, that we will train even more powerful "eyes" upon it, and detect the chemical traces of organic life. It will happen in this lifetime. I am so grateful to be living NOW. It's going to be absolutely CRAZY when the discovery is finally made.
After reading this it confirms my biggest question with space travel, space brakes. There is nothing to stop you but, the fuel you carry. I watch old and new sci-fi movies and laugh when I see astronauts in a thin non-insulated material space suits acting as if it is 50F in space and their spaceships that stop on a dime. My point is that as we learn more about space and space travel the more we learn what technologies we will need to make space travel practical and possible. If you run out of fuel in space then you will freeze very quickly and you will be space junk flying through space forever.
the most important bit of information to remember concerning space travel is ABSOLUTELY NEVER bring or wear a red shirt. ever.
And always keep your towel handy. And DON'T PANIC.
not forever...but an extended period of time.
I always felt sorry fer the poor Red Shirts whenever they showed up. The viewer knew the score then the poor guys in red were Clueless!
"Hopes for alien Earths" are for dopes. Get your heads out of science fiction and go for the facts. There is NO REALITY for interstellar travel and there is no other home for life in our solar system. Come down you space nuts and put your knowledge and abilities to work for your only home planet.
said to Columbus prior to his first voyage: "Hopes for a shortcut to the Orient" are for dopes. Get your heads out of maritime fiction and go for the facts. There is NO REALITY about traveling west to get to the East, and there is nothing beyond the edge of the flat Earth. Come down you explorer nuts and put your knowledge and abilities to work for only your home country - the United Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.
there - fixed that for you.
> I say "Ni"! <
Not very bright there are you.
flatland!!....we livin in flatland everybody!!!...stay away from the edges of the earth!!...strike that...I mean solar system....errr, I mean stay away from the edges of the universe!!! we livin in flatland everybody!!!
Hows this for a concept...ya'll just doin know 'nuthin....jus like tellin od'thers whaddy they shoulda believe? eh?
For all we know, "knowa" issa now making up a BIG,BIG,BIG saucer shaped solar sail, and when the great hot plasma flood at the edge of the universe finally (yawn) gets here, it gonna float aways off, and repopulate the far reaches of the solar system, that'd be 4 light years pret' darn near round!!
stone age: A period in time when man discovered that you cannot responsibly carve boats out of granite.
Plastic age: A period in time when man discovered you cannot responsibly cast space ships out of plass....wait...plastic age ain't over yet, still some replicans left.....
That planet is a ways off, if we start colonizing as far as we can reach now, and do so ad infinitum, nothing says our species can't be there in a heck of a lot of generations, little stepping stones that cross the biggest river yet. If I look north as far as I can alpha is a tiny bit bigger, south, alpha (1/137) is a little bit smaller...hmm, I think I got a compass!! Let's go!!!
Wait!...maybe there is a planet closer yet!!, course we see it where and how it was so long ago, change is constant, it is NOW (right this minute) no where near where it was, and, somehow it has changed, how?...dunno...you know? we are gonna need a compass, on that we can agree. So what ya waiting for? the moon is the first step!! are ya chicken??..faiken with the broken wing thing again???...ha! any country that has home of the brave as a motto outghta at least have some sense of bravery attribitable to it's Senators and congressmen....bawk, bawk, bawk.....
Wow...was that ray smith, or Charlie Sheen? Because that was just totally unglued.
What makes you think EARTH isn't a "spaceship"? :-)
Poor silly Craig has his head stuck in the sand.
Oh there is faith the probability of the sheer numbers, logically insists planets capable of supporting humans were they to venture there, will undoubtedly be found, sooner or later. We are certain! It exists not only another but many!
a belief based not on proof, and sheer probability is not proof.
dun dun dun /tasking off
Briefly I peruse the excitement of visiting another world capable of sustaining my human being. Certainly I would want to have companions with me, we would share in the marvel of outworldly, alien flora!! And fauna!!!
The soil of an alien, human life sustaining world, would be sacred and if you don't believe that word how about super-virgin. You might say how about "pristine"
Danger, what dangers would there be? Toxic plants? Ferocious beasts? Unstable enviroments? An indigenious sentient species?
Were there none sentient life, but a planet capable of sustaining human life, with water, plants, beasts food, soil materials for shelter, temperant enviroment.
The goal would be to colonize? The colonists, what is their make up? Are there evolutionists that would say anything we eat would or potentially evolve into sentient life? We are invaders? Interfering? Polluting?Defiling?
Or strict Vegetarians? What says plant life forms wouldn't be the ones to evolve into sentient life? Okay so maybe the evolutionists wouldn't allow any colonization. The Vegetatrians wouldn't allow any beasts to be eaten. Just leave these two groups on earth.
Okay we can go on with political, social, athiestic, religious ramifications of potential conflicts, that would be counter-productive to a fledgling colony.
Military? Oh now, civilians would be protesting and revolting that until the cows came home.
So all colonists would have to be stripped of any traces of what we call "humanity". Come on no one is going to go for that. lol
It would take a disaster to earth for a complete representaion of this planets populace to venture to another planet, and that doesn't mean all would agree to go. :) Perhaps groups of like minded peoples would be lotteried out a planet hospitable, until all were satisfied. lol
Granted that doesn't answer the question of technology ie the vessel(s) or the logistics.
So I resign to the novels or movies that have already broached upon.
All of this is a waste of time. These types of plants are light years away (KOI 326.01 is 100 light years away, I believe). Since we will never be able to travel at the speed of light (we're not even close), and since we haven't worked out cryogenics for humans yet, we should work with what we have:
1) colonize our own moon and/or mars
2) slow the rate of destruction of planet earth
Never say never...
i say screw the earth and move to Mars!!!!!
Travelling at some fraction at the speed of light may suffice to travel to the nearby stars, not AT the speed of light. Even electrons can't travel at that speed.
If we can find a habitable planet 3 light years away, then we're better off. But we haven't, so we'll study what we have. I'd say any planet within 100 light years may be fair game. We may not be able to travel today, but that doesn't mean we can never.
One day we will travel to another habitable planet. And what will we find? Charlie Sheen.
lol
"Honey, unpack the moving van and call NASA. We won't be buying the shuttle after all!"
Always makin' the wife unpack the moving van. Nice.
lol
You'll see, Mob, you'll see. You should be taking notes.... ;-P
Got my pen and paper out. Oh boo, it's a list of to-do's my fiance gave me. LOL
Maybe they should get all the facts before releasing things about possible planets.
Thing is, when that's done, Conspiracy Theorists(tm) invariably pop up with; "They're sitting on the data! The government's hiding something!"
Some of those CTs even pop up here...
What makes you think EARTH isn't a "spaceship"? :)
So, where's Earth's bridge and helm?
well it aint like we was goin there or to any of these planets any time soon, or EVER
Ever is a long time dude. It's a really long time. If mankind can survive long enough interstellar travel will happen. It's simply a matter of time. A very, very, Very, Very very very, long LONG time.
EVER is a long time how bout 'not in your life time' and unless the aliens give us their ftl drive plans its not realistic to even consider a real possibility. its nice to dream and actually i want the ufo's to be real but if theres a mineral or energy that is not available in this solar system its not gonna happen
remember 'we dont know what we dont know' lol
youll never see it ill never see it, i doubt humanity will survive long enuff to accomplish much more. flight has backed it self into a corner and is unable to surpass the achievements of the sr-71 and that was built in the mid 60's. all they do now is tweak old designs and call it new
and poor poor nasa out of money, out of favor and to pedantic to come up with anything new and interesting. kinda sad to see a giant slide into a laughingstock
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. ~Attributed to Arthur McBride Bloch
The large print giveth, but the small print taketh away. ~Tom Waits
Eagles may soar in the clouds, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines. ~Attributed to both Jason Hutchison and John Benfield
wow, i guess you told me, lol
yeah, so take that. lol
"well it aint like we was goin there or to any of these planets any time soon, or EVER"
As another poster noted, 'never say ever.'
Besides, does it have to be next door to be significant? Astronomers have functioned for centuries, with no idea that we would even reach the Moon, much less anything more distant. If the possibility of life elsewhere matters at all to you, these are the questions you need to ask. We study events on the edge of the visible Universe, not because we expect to go there, but because it's important to understand the Universe around us.
Knowledge is worthwhile for its own sake...and you never know what knowledge may end up having some practical value later.
lilbear68 is right, the planet is 100 light years away
100 light years is 565696000000000 miles away; the fastest spacecraft in history was the Helios probe which reached a speed of 157078 MPH
such a "probe" would take 3601370020 hours, or 150057084 days, or over 410842 YEARS to reach planet KOI 326.01
sooooo, what you're saying is... it's possible.
*sigh*
Where is it said that Heilos is the last word in spaccecraft speed?
The answer to 'far away' is, as always, go faster.
*Duh*
You're an idiot.
Could you be more specific?
The universe offers infinite possibilities. I hope a day mankind building fusion-powered starships for making interstellar travel to check alien life existence and planet candidates to be a second Earth in any point of the universe.
This is one subject that its difficult for some folks not to get exited about. Including
the scientists and journalists involved. Cant blame them really. If an Earthlike world is
announced anytime soon. It will no doubt be a major news story. The problem now however,
is that planet hunting technology is still in relative infancy and such an announcement
may prove premature, as this one apparently has.
The vast majority of extrasolar planets have not yet been imaged. Especially anything
remotely earthlike. Earthlike is still a very broad definition within the astronomical
community and can mean virtually any rocky world. I for one hope to see a confirmation
of an earthlike world or worlds within whats left of my lifetime.
Even if an earthlike world is imaged in the visible light portion of the spectrum,
it does not necessarily mean it will be a life bearing world. Spectral analysis may
be able to settle the life question. Then the question becomes what kind of life?
Simple organisms or complex, possibly human level intelligent beings.
Then comes the problem a few folks here have pointed out. We won't live to see these
worlds visited by robotic probes, much less human expeditions because of the enormous
distances involved. And if recent developments in human spaceflight is any indication,
it will be a very long time before humans do embark on such journeys.
America is in full retreat where human spaceflight is concerned. One can only hope
the private sector will be able to take over. Or maybe one of these earthlike worlds
will prove to be the real deal and will in turn, stimulate major interest in human
space exploration once again.
"There is NO REALITY for interstellar travel.."
Clearly not today. What's your point? Do you think technology has reached a dead end?
"...and there is no other home for life in our solar system."
And you are certain of those assertions, because...? I'm thinking you've not personally explored Mars, Europa, Enceladus, Titan, etc. thoroughly enough to know.
"Come down you space nuts and put your knowledge and abilities to work for your only home planet."
Oh, I see. You want us to concentrate on what you consider important, instead.