Astronomers spot Earth-like planet

Good, wicked, they said this would happen soon but within weeks of the announcement is pretty cool.

Their habitable zone is defined by temperature? I wonder if they included other radiation in their scrutiny. Sounds like they somewhat include a planet's mass but there are many more factors in finding another Earth.

Finding a planet in the 'temperature habitable zone' shouldn't be too unusual. But finding a planet that's in the habitable zone that also is a similar mass (and rocky) AND has a similar chemical makeup is still hard to imagine as common in the galaxy, hard to imagine as even uncommon in definition, rare seems most appropriate. The good news is that water is basic, very stable and the critical requirement for life as we define it, so finding water out there shouldn't be unimaginable. As for another Earth, or even a planet that is slightly deviated in one aspect or another, it's going to be rare occurrence for sure. Eh?

Rare? Not necessarily. I have watched a lot of programs on things like this, and the way planets are formed when their parent star is born suggests that earth like planets MAY be very common in the universe. When a star is born there is an immense amount of gas and other particles floating around, over millions/billions of years these pieces are naturally (gravity) drawn together and eventually form planets. All planets start with the same elements but depending on how far away they are from their parent star dictates how they form. Temperature differences make the ingredients (cook) differently. Also, if a planet is more than 10x earth it is believed to be to big.
Because of the way planets are formed every single star (200 billion in our galaxy alone) has the potential for planets, and every single star has a "Goldilocks zone", and water is present in various forms throughout the universe.
I believe to think there is no life out there somewhere is ignorant/arrogant, now whether any of it has developed into intelligent life is another matter.

Yup. "Earth like" merely means in the "Goldilocks zone". At least at this time since we're somewhat limited in what we can detect at the moment. Venus and Mars are also in the zone, but won't be habitable any time soon.

Excellent why don't we all move there and start over except this time lets do it right.

Honey!!! start packing.

Hang on, we're just getting our first pictures of the surface...

There are numerous problems associated with life on a planet orbiting a red dwarf. Besides the potential problems of tidal lock(which could be alleviated if the planet has oceans or a thick atmosphere), red dwarfs emit most of their radiation as infrared light, while on Earth plants use energy mostly in the visible spectrum. Red dwarfs emit almost no ultraviolet light, which would be a problem if UV is required for life to exist. Variability in stellar energy output may also have negative impacts on development of life. Red dwarfs are often covered by starspots, reducing stellar output by as much as 40% for months at a time. At other times, some red dwarfs, called flare stars, can emit gigantic flares, doubling their brightness in minutes. This variability may also make it difficult for life to develop and persist near a red dwarf star.

Crap, too late, let's just Nuke it now before they see us.

Talk about bursting my bubble.

Next time, just STFU!

Talk about bursting my bubble.

Next time, just STFU!
Make me

...and it ain't looking good.

Lots of problems with that plan. First, we haven't really discovered any planets outside our solar system yet. We measure stars' wobbles, which may indicate that a planet is there, maybe not. From what I've read, the researchers don't think this planet rotates. Which means it'll be half in darkness, like our moon, all the time. We also know nothing of the gravitational forces. We may not be able to survive the pressure or may drift away. Of course, we know nothing about gasses and other elements present on the planet.

Then there's the distance: 20 light years, or about 200,000,000,000,000km. The fastest spacecraft ever launched from Earth (the Helios 2 probe) travels at 250,000km/hr. At that speed it would take us almost 90,000 years to get there.

It's definitely not looking good. More images from the planet

...and it ain't looking good.



hehe, that's awesome!