Our Galaxy is FULL of Earth-Like Planets!

Well the discovery does bring the count up to 2, not sure that qualifies as full. But I do agree that as its only 20 light years away it does seem likely full will turn out to be a fair description. Though I think we need to clock up a few more before we draw too many conclusions about life. Firstly stars come in 3 generations, the first 2 generations are do not contain enough elements heavier than helium to form life at least not unless its made out of helium and hydrogen. The sun is an older 3rd generation star so is likely to be one of the first stars in our galaxy capable of starting life using this argument, of course this only suggests that we'd be first, not necessarily only. Then there is the distribution of stars in the galaxy, the areas of the galaxy with a high density of stars will be bathed in radiation and unlikely to allow complex molecules to remain stable enough to form life. Also most stars are in binary or even tertiary systems, the complex gravitational field tends to expel planets. In a similar vein its very hard to make a stable solar system, you can download tools that simulate our solar system, its actually quite hard to change much without the solar system collapsing (infact its not been proven that this one is stable). Anyway the list goes on, but its still possible that life is extraordinarily unlikely, though lots of Earth like planets obviously does the odds no harm at all.

 

It's about time they discovered an earth-like planet surrounding a sun similar to our own. I remember the initial excitement surrounding Pegasus 51 back in the 1990’s, and the disappointment which followed when it was determined that "life as we know it" could not exist on the surface - to quote one astronomer "the surface is as hot as hell"


Hotwater

 

huuuuuuuraaayy!!! i want to go live onthis planet away from all this bullshit humans have created

 

When thinking about possible ways life can exist its hard to know whether your being limited by a lack of knowledge of other ways of making life or just applying a simple common sense argument. Any other kind of life (at least using current levels of knowedge i.e. ignoring some star trek things like other dimensions, and some of the other-wordly but yet creative ideas there have been), is almost certainly going to me made from atoms, as they are the only objects stable enough for life to evolve, everything else tends to end up as radiation vey quickly. I cant remember the exact ratio but i seem to remember that for every 1000 compounds that can exist 999 are organic or something stupid like that, and i'd guess most of the rest is silicon based. Of course most of the complex carbon compounds dont exist naturally. If you want something of the complexity of DNA or proteins then it really has to be carbon. You also need some organic solvent, here seems to be your first choice, water is the best but I guess methane and perhaps some alcohols may also give enough freedom to create life. If we find life that isnt carbon based my guess is that it will come with a huge new discovery in physics as well.

To me the biggest question is how likely is life to start. As we dont really know how this happens, it could be a very common, almost inevitable consequence of liquid water on a planet with organic molecules. It could be unlikely but possible. It could be so unlikely that we are the only ones, on statistical not arrogance grounds. We could live in an anthropocentric universe where a divine creator has made the universe specifically so we can exist. In my mind this is the most important variable and the one about which i think we know least. Just to stir things up a bit using anthropological assumption about the universe does seem to better fit some physical observation than a purely deterministic observation. Of course this could simply be a selection effect, as we exist of course the universe will look like it was designed for us otherwise we wouldn't be here.

 

This is pretty interesting though not remarkable really. There are so many starts out there that the chances of there being another form of life is unbelievably high. 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% etc.

I disagree with that. The planet would be much to far away to reach ever. Our closest star is 4 light years away - far great a distance for anyone to fly in a lifetime.

Still, quite interesting and exciting. Thanks for that.

 

Somebody PLEASE get to work on the Alcubierre warp drive, so I can get off this crazy planet! I've been standing in my back yard with my lighter trying to hitch a ride for years! Now that we know there's somewhere else habitable (as the earth becomes uninhabitalbe), I am all for some interstellar homesteading!

Seriously though, it's a fascinating discovery, and now we know that there must be unknown others out there as well. Earth's twin is out there, somewhere in the vast cosmos...and if nobody has planted a flag there yet, we should try to be there first!

 

well think about this, what about the abductee's that have not returned to earth? maybe they are on a planet like this, repopulating...weird..jsut a thought...that would also bring up the ides of intelligent design...

 

Sorry but you missed the Hale-Bopp Express back in 1997 with the Heaven's Gate Cult along with their leader Marshall Applewhite and his band of lunatics

On a more serious note: eventually a vast list of earth-like planets will emerge from the search - the next question will be, what to do with it? :H


Hotwater

 

^^
Earth First!
We'll log the other planets later.

 

dude our fastest spacecraft are significantly slower than light speed. it would take so long to get to any of these places

 

Wonder how many more Earth-like planets are out there.

 

Probably more than you could ever count. There are so many solar systems out there that your mind simply cannot perceive it. Just accept it. You'll never visit them. I hope that once you die, you'll be able to explore space for eternity moving as quickly as you please.

 

I worked out a few days ago that the fastest humans could get to that planet at present propulsion speeds is somewhere around 11764705882 years

 

No resistance in space would mean constant acceleration would eventually surpass light speed...even if you don't believe one would turn into pure energy at light speed and could be everywhere or anywhere immediately, there is no air to provide friction upon a moving body in outer space.

 

I don't think you will turn into pure energy at the speed of light. Though thats largely irrelevant as you wont get there. Quite beyond the technological fact that space is not a perfect vacuum and at speeds a significant portion of light you would get ripped to shreds by a speck of dust, the main problem would be the infinite amount of energy it takes to get to the speed of light.

 

Could somebody here please explain to me how they have found out it's an earthlike planet they discovered? I mean, I saw it in the news here awhile ago and they showed the way how they discovered this planet: by watching and calculating the changes in the movement of the star by things in it's orbit. One of these things has to be an earthlike planet. Why?
Or did I completely misinterpreted something here? I just didn't saw any explanation of why it would be an earthlike planet, if they didn't actually saw the planet itself.

Me too!