First Images Ever Taken of a Planet Being Formed, 450 Light-Years From Earth

Zothecula writes: Of the many new exoplanets discovered over the past two decades, all have been identified as established, older planets – none have been acknowledged as newly-forming protoplanets. Now scientists working at the Keck observatory have spied just such a planet in the constellation of Taurus, some 450 light-years from Earth (abstract), that is only just beginning its life, collecting matter and spinning into a brand new world.

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[Maritz]

Well, give us a few minutes to sort how we travel at three hundred million metres per second, then we'll head.

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[rossdee]

Yep, I'm sure Slartibardfast and the other Magratheans kept visual records of their creations billions of years ago

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[Maritz]

It's a perfectly reasonable assumption, hence why the Fermi paradox is a paradox. Anything capable enough to spread throughout the galaxy should be fairly obvious to us at this point.

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[Scarletdown]

I'm still awaiting the discovery of felonium, which would be confirmation that even the world of physics has a criminal element.

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[sudon't]

Was Adamantium named after 80's pop star Adam Ant?

Anyway, Fermi's Paradox isn't so paradoxical. It's a supposition based on pure speculation. Also, the Universe is big, really big, and we may be the only inhabitants of the Milky Way, which itself is really big. We just don't know. Regardless, even we, the only known intelligent life-form, haven't managed interstellar travel. Assuming we do, how many ships would we send out? How many ships would it take to visit even one-percent of the galaxy? Let's not forg

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[spire3661]

Probability includes the chance of ZERO. Dont ever ever forget that. There is a probability that we are the first race in the Cosmos with our capabilities. Dont wield probability without fully understanding it. It takes just as much as it gives.

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[spire3661]

The Fermi Paradox has no bounded data to draw from. The data we have is nowhere near complete enough to make the statement you or even Fermi are making. The Fermi Paradox is an interesting idea, but its certainly not a fully accepted one. Its something to you can point to and go 'thats a neat thought' and thats about it. It is a minor philosophical exercise, always keep that in mind.

The Fermi Paradox is easily countered with one simple question: 'What if we are simply the first ones?' Even calling it a

Taurus?

[Nidi62]

Just please don't send some ships out there to investigate it. While pocket lasers would be cool, we really don't need a millenia-long interstellar war.

shit?

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't see any shit, only a few dots, and some drawen animation, you call that sience ?

Science!

[sjbe]

I didn't see any shit, only a few dots, and some drawen animation, you call that sience ?

No we call it science.

If only..

[Marginal Coward]

If only Nicolaus Copernicus could have been around when this happened. Oh wait...he was...

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[amicusNYCL]

We're exploring the universe from our computer chairs?

No, we're just taking pictures of it. If you're flying in a plane over the Grand Canyon and you take a picture of it, that's not the same thing as exploring the Grand Canyon.

Wow!

[wonkey_monkey]

These planets appear to have taken the form of gigantic squares!

450 years ago

[paulpach]

They do realize the planet was forming 450 years ago right?

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[wbr1]

You do realize that the accretion phase lasts hundreds of thousands of years right?