28 New Planets Found Outside Solar System

elkcsr writes "The San Jose Mercury news reports on the phenomenal discovery of 28 new extra-solar planets out there in our galaxy. All of them are outside of the band scientists consider necessary for supporting life as we know it, but the solar systems analyzed should still be quite familiar to those of us in this neck of the woods. System layouts feature small rocky planets towards the star and gas giants further out. The biggest difference seen is a preference for elliptical orbits, instead of generally circular orbit we enjoy. ' For example, the team also described new details about one specific exoplanet, discovered two years ago. This planet, which circles the star Gliese 436, is thought to be half rock, half water. Its rocky core is surrounded by an amount of water compressed into a solid form at high pressures and low temperatures. It makes a short, 2.6-day orbit around Gliese 436. Based on its radius and density, scientists calculate that it has the mass of 22 Earths, making it slightly larger than Neptune. "The profound conclusion is, here we've found yet another type of planet that is already represented in our solar system," Marcy said.'"

we are not alone

[jcgam69]

"Our Milky Way galaxy has 200 billion stars. I would estimate that 10 percent of them, perhaps, have planets that are habitable," Marcy said.

We are most definitely not alone in this galaxy.

Re:Strange...

[Cristofori42]

To their credit it did say "life as we know it" not just "life in general"

Re:Strange...

[Ucklak]

Let's say we can go visit another planet and I can plant my NASA boot on their soil. I really would like to not wear a protective suit that would protect me from the elements.
I also wouldn't want to do it naked either as we sometimes portray aliens that visit earth as naked beings (CE3K, War of the Worlds, etc...)

Re:Are elliptical orbits easier to detect?

[IdleTime]

We are circular? that's news to me. We are also elliptical around the sun.

The only problem I see, is space travel. It's a long long long way to the nearest exoplanet and we will probably never be able to travel that far thanks to the laws of the universe.

Re:Cool

[kalirion]

If FTL travel ever comes about, we can see if there's different materials out there that we're not aware of. Too bad I won't live to see it.

You never know where technology will take us, even in the near future. Some say that we might experience technological singularity [wikipedia.org] within the next 20 years. Then it might be a rather short time until FTL, or at least the ability to prolong one's life/consciousness. Then again, it might also be a rather short time until our extinction.

Re:We ARE alone

[moderatorrater]

The only problem with that logic is that you're assuming life can't develop in any form other than what we have here on earth. However, many scientists think silicon could make a serviceable substitute for carbon as the building block of life elsewhere, and that still assumes a similarity to the life here on earth.

However, if it's possible for life to develop in other environments, then it looks like there's going to be a lot of company in this little galaxy of ours.

Re:Cool

[Aliriza]

I have only been to two other countries and has not seen most of the world yet and they are finding new planets.My life is too short and the universe is too big :)

Re:It's not that simple

[jddj]

More to the point, not even a hundred years elapsed between the time we made the first tentative experiments with radio and the point at which we developed the technology to wipe life off the planet with the machinery of war.

This doesn't even comprehend accidental or intentional sterilization of the globe with some new biological weapon or experiment not yet comprehended.

It's possible that over the long term, only the not-as-smart-as-us lifeforms survive.

We'd have to find each other not just in space, but in time as well. And the realities of time in space travel mean there may no longer be a welcoming committee there by the time we put down the gangway.

Re:We ARE alone

[Anonymous Coward]

This galaxy is also apart of billions of other galaxies that compose the universe, its amazing if not impossible to be able to fully grasp the true scale of it. The implication of their being life currently or at one point on Mars or Europa, in our own solar system, if true would be astounding, providing some proof that life is an abundant and naturally forming processes in the universe.

On a more personal note and I am aware there is no real knowledge of their being such, but it's nice to think that somewhere else (or many places) in the universe some form of life at some point in time potentially went or is going threw the same questions, and the shit we deal with here on a daily basis. For those who are interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw [youtube.com] music is a bit cheesy but the video does an excellent job in helping show the true scale of a galaxy, of a small portion of the universe.

Re:Why are...

[Aram Fingal]

> Why are we even LOOKING at other planets when we haven't solved the problems on our own?

Space offers solutions to many of those problems. Some problems are related to lack of resources and others to social problems. Space offers unlimited resources compared to what we can get here on Earth. Projects like asteroid mining and space-based solar power are not all that far off from today's technology and they could solve some of our major problems. On the social side, exploration of space can be a unifying theme which will help people to put aside their differences.

Some other social problems, which come from human nature, will never go away and we can't let that hold us back.