Earthlike Planet Orbiting Nearby Star 617
The Bad Astronomer writes "Astronomers in Europe have announced the discovery of a planet with only 5 times the Earth's mass, orbiting a red dwarf star 20 light years away. It orbits the star so closely that it only takes 13 days to go around... but the star is so cool that the temperature of the planet is between 0 and 40 Celsius. At this temperature there could be liquid water. Models indicate the planet is either rocky like the Earth or covered in an ocean. While it's not known if there actually is liquid water on the planet, this is a really big discovery, and indicates that we are getting ever closer to finding another Earth orbiting an alien star."
NOT so fast.... (Score:5, Funny)
Hi-rez imaging (Score:5, Funny)
Peter
omg omg (Score:5, Funny)
on the same day kryptonite is found
coincidence?
of course!
Caturday reply to the news (Score:5, Funny)
http://x014.uploaderx.net/x/astronautcat.jpg [uploaderx.net]
[m]
Re:Only one thing to do! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hi-rez imaging (Score:5, Funny)
Just remember (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hi-rez imaging (Score:5, Funny)
And the designation is... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hi-rez imaging (Score:5, Funny)
No, it's just devoid of intelligent life.
Re:Only 5X the mass of Earth! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just remember (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hi-rez imaging (Score:5, Funny)
"It is of course well known that careless talk costs lives, but the full scale of the problem is not always appreciated. For instance, at the very moment that Arthur said `I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle,' a freak wormhole opened up in the fabric of the space time continuum and carried his words far far back in time across almost infinite reaches of space to a distant Galaxy where strange and warlike beings were poised on the brink of frightful interstellar battle. The two opposing leaders were meeting for the last time . . . and a dreadful silence fell across the conference table as the commander of the Vl'hurgs, resplendent in his black jewelled battle shorts, gazed levelly at the G'Gugvant leader squatting opposite him in a cloud of green sweet-smelling steam, and, with a million sleek and horribly beweaponed star cruisers poised to unleash electric death at his single word of command, challenged the vile creature to take back what it had said about his mother.
The creature stirred in his sickly broiling vapour, and at that very moment, the words `I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle' drifted across the conference table. Unfortunately, in the Vl'hurg tongue this was the most dreadful insult imaginable, and there was nothing for it but to wage terrible war. Eventually of course, after their galaxy had been decimated over a few thousand years, it was realised that the whole thing had been a ghastly mistake, and so the two opposing battle fleets settled their few remaining differences in order to launch a joint attack on our Galaxy -- now positively identified as the source of the offending remark.
For thousands more years the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the planet Earth, where, due to a terrible miscalculation of scale, the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog.
Those who study the complex interplay of cause and effect in the history of the Universe say that this sort of thing is going on all the time, but are powerless to prevent it.
`It's just life,' they say."
Indeed. RIP, Mr. Adams.
Re:And the designation is... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:And the designation is... (Score:5, Funny)
How come it's so easy to learn from Star Trek, yet I haven't a freaking clue what happened at work today?
Re:Strange new worlds (Score:5, Funny)
That's like saying "I'm dating this girl who's like Jessica Alba. She's latina, has dark hair, and is only five times Jessica Alba's size! So you see, she is plainly like Jessica Alba!".
Heh.
Disclaimer: I am very excited by this news; I'm just being a smartass!
Re:How long to get there? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Only 5X the mass of Earth! (Score:2, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
OFQ (Score:5, Funny)
(Obligatory Futurama Quote)
From the Futurama episode Love and Rocket:
WELCOME! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Uninhabital new worlds (Score:4, Funny)
Re:This is worth sending a probe. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:When do tickets go on sale? (Score:4, Funny)
That's awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ion drive not up to the task (Score:3, Funny)
That is a truly shockingly large number.
Re:Strange new worlds (Score:2, Funny)