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Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered
by NY Times
Thanks to James Dowse for the link.
Reposted from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/science/space/15planets.html
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: February 15, 2008
Astronomers said Wednesday that they had found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light-years across the galaxy — the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets.
"It looks like a scale model of our solar system," said Scott Gaudi, an assistant professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. Dr. Gaudi led an international team of 69 professional and amateur astronomers who announced the discovery in a news conference with reporters.
Their results are being published Friday in the journal Science. The discovery, they said, means that our solar system may be more typical of planetary systems across the universe than had been thought.
In the newly discovered system, a planet about two-thirds of the mass of Jupiter and another about 90 percent of the mass of Saturn are orbiting a reddish star at about half the distances that Jupiter and Saturn circle our own Sun. The star is about half the mass of the Sun.
Neither of the two giant planets is a likely abode for life as we know it. But, Dr. Gaudi said, warm rocky planets — suitable for life — could exist undetected in the inner parts of the system.
"This could be a true solar system analogue," he said.
Sara Seager, a theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not part of the team, said that "right now in exoplanets we are on an inexorable path to finding other Earths." Dr. Seager praised the discovery as "a big step in finding out if our planetary system is alone."
Since 1995, around 250 planets outside the solar system, or exoplanets, have been discovered. But few of them are in systems that even faintly resemble our own. In many cases, giant Jupiter-like planets are whizzing around in orbits smaller than that of Mercury. But are these typical of the universe?
Almost all of those planets were discovered by the so-called wobble method, in which astronomers measure the gravitational tug of planets on their parent star as they whir around it. This technique is most sensitive to massive planets close to their stars.
The new discovery was made by a different technique that favors planets more distant from their star. It is based on a trick of Einsteinian gravity called microlensing. If, in the ceaseless shifting of the stars, two of them should become almost perfectly aligned with Earth, the gravity of the nearer star can bend and magnify the light from the more distant one, causing it to get much brighter for a few days.
If the alignment is perfect, any big planets attending the nearer star will get into the act, adding their own little boosts to the more distant starlight.
That is exactly what started happening on March 28, 2006, when a star 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius began to pass in front of one 21,000 light-years more distant, causing it to flash. That was picked up by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, or Ogle, a worldwide collaboration of observers who keep watch for such events.
Ogle in turn immediately issued a worldwide call for continuous observations of what is now officially known as OGLE-2006-BLG-109. The next 10 days, as Andrew P. Gould, a professor of mathematical and physical sciences at Ohio State said, were "extremely frenetic."
Among those who provided crucial data and appeared as lead authors of the paper in Science were a pair of amateur astronomers from Auckland, New Zealand, Jennie McCormick and Grant Christie, both members of a group called the Microlensing Follow-Up Network, or MicroFUN.
Somewhat to the experimenters' surprise, by clever manipulation they were able to dig out of the data not just the masses of the interloper star and its two planets, but also rough approximations of their orbits, confirming the similarity to our own system. David P. Bennett, an assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Notre Dame, said, "This event has taught us that we were able to learn more about these planets than we thought possible."
As a result, microlensing is poised to become a major new tool in the planet hunter's arsenal, "a new flavor of the month," Dr. Seager said.
Only six planets, including the new ones, have been discovered by microlensing so far, and the Scorpius event being reported Friday is the first in which the alignment of the stars was close enough for astronomers to detect more than one planet at once. Their success at doing just that on their first try bodes well for the future, astronomers say.
Alan Boss, a theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said, "The fact that these are hard to detect by microlensing means there must be a good number of them — solar system analogues are not rare."
Reposted from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/science/space/15planets.html
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: February 15, 2008
Astronomers said Wednesday that they had found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light-years across the galaxy — the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets.
"It looks like a scale model of our solar system," said Scott Gaudi, an assistant professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. Dr. Gaudi led an international team of 69 professional and amateur astronomers who announced the discovery in a news conference with reporters.
Their results are being published Friday in the journal Science. The discovery, they said, means that our solar system may be more typical of planetary systems across the universe than had been thought.
In the newly discovered system, a planet about two-thirds of the mass of Jupiter and another about 90 percent of the mass of Saturn are orbiting a reddish star at about half the distances that Jupiter and Saturn circle our own Sun. The star is about half the mass of the Sun.
Neither of the two giant planets is a likely abode for life as we know it. But, Dr. Gaudi said, warm rocky planets — suitable for life — could exist undetected in the inner parts of the system.
"This could be a true solar system analogue," he said.
Sara Seager, a theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not part of the team, said that "right now in exoplanets we are on an inexorable path to finding other Earths." Dr. Seager praised the discovery as "a big step in finding out if our planetary system is alone."
Since 1995, around 250 planets outside the solar system, or exoplanets, have been discovered. But few of them are in systems that even faintly resemble our own. In many cases, giant Jupiter-like planets are whizzing around in orbits smaller than that of Mercury. But are these typical of the universe?
Almost all of those planets were discovered by the so-called wobble method, in which astronomers measure the gravitational tug of planets on their parent star as they whir around it. This technique is most sensitive to massive planets close to their stars.
The new discovery was made by a different technique that favors planets more distant from their star. It is based on a trick of Einsteinian gravity called microlensing. If, in the ceaseless shifting of the stars, two of them should become almost perfectly aligned with Earth, the gravity of the nearer star can bend and magnify the light from the more distant one, causing it to get much brighter for a few days.
If the alignment is perfect, any big planets attending the nearer star will get into the act, adding their own little boosts to the more distant starlight.
That is exactly what started happening on March 28, 2006, when a star 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius began to pass in front of one 21,000 light-years more distant, causing it to flash. That was picked up by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, or Ogle, a worldwide collaboration of observers who keep watch for such events.
Ogle in turn immediately issued a worldwide call for continuous observations of what is now officially known as OGLE-2006-BLG-109. The next 10 days, as Andrew P. Gould, a professor of mathematical and physical sciences at Ohio State said, were "extremely frenetic."
Among those who provided crucial data and appeared as lead authors of the paper in Science were a pair of amateur astronomers from Auckland, New Zealand, Jennie McCormick and Grant Christie, both members of a group called the Microlensing Follow-Up Network, or MicroFUN.
Somewhat to the experimenters' surprise, by clever manipulation they were able to dig out of the data not just the masses of the interloper star and its two planets, but also rough approximations of their orbits, confirming the similarity to our own system. David P. Bennett, an assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Notre Dame, said, "This event has taught us that we were able to learn more about these planets than we thought possible."
As a result, microlensing is poised to become a major new tool in the planet hunter's arsenal, "a new flavor of the month," Dr. Seager said.
Only six planets, including the new ones, have been discovered by microlensing so far, and the Scorpius event being reported Friday is the first in which the alignment of the stars was close enough for astronomers to detect more than one planet at once. Their success at doing just that on their first try bodes well for the future, astronomers say.
Alan Boss, a theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said, "The fact that these are hard to detect by microlensing means there must be a good number of them — solar system analogues are not rare."
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Posted: Friday, February 15, 2008 | PermalinkComments 1 - 50 of 53 |
Reload Comments | Back to Top | Page Numbers2. Comment #127849 by Prankster on February 15, 2008 at 4:45 pm
No don't send anyone one thereIf there's intelligent life there (and there's precious fucking little on this planet) sending the sky fairy and his son there might screw them up completely-maybe if Dog is omnipotent and omnipresent he's already there fucking them up big time poor sods
Other Comments by Prankster
3. Comment #127850 by HourglassMemory on February 15, 2008 at 4:47 pm
It's amazing how fast discoveries are being made in astronomy.I still remember when there were still just a few planets out there. The first extrasolar planet was discovered within my lifetime (I'm 18).
And now we're sending probes to the polar regions of Mars, in the hopes of finding some sort of life or its remants, and finding systems out there that could very well be like ours.
I mean, just the fact that Jupiter-like planets are common... To know that Jupiters are not rare, and we have one right here with us!
I'm just going to sit and wait.
This sort of thing is great.
I'm going to wait for the telescopes big enough to show us these planets, I don't care if they're Jupiters.
I know this isn't about the Phoenix probe, but my god, I cannot wait for its landing.
It would be really huge if they found ANY sort of life frozen on the polar regions of Mars.
My god I cannot imagine how the churches of the world would react.
Other Comments by HourglassMemory
4. Comment #127851 by Diacanu on February 15, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Come on, Hawking, invent warp drive already. Other Comments by Diacanu
5. Comment #127854 by Steve Zara on February 15, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Come on, Hawking, invent warp drive already.
It has already been done. This was worked out by the physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. The main problems include steering and how to turn the thing off.
Other Comments by Steve Zara
6. Comment #127857 by Prankster on February 15, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I think I know exactly how they will react-they will say it's part of Dog's grand design and try to claim any form of life as it's own and then convert itJewish martian, muslim martians Xtains and every other persuasion and so off it trundles again just on another world with decades of slaughter and religious genocide to follow
Too bleak? Sorry bad night on the other threads
Other Comments by Prankster
7. Comment #127858 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 4:53 pm
The main problems include steering and how to turn the thing off.
The mind boggles. ( I love having my mind boggled ! Thanks.)
Other Comments by Sally Luxmoore
8. Comment #127865 by Diacanu on February 15, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Steve Zara-It has already been done. This was worked out by the physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. The main problems include steering and how to turn the thing off.
Well, that, and for fuel, you need a big tank of unobtainium. ;)
Other Comments by Diacanu
9. Comment #127868 by Steve Zara on February 15, 2008 at 5:04 pm
The mind boggles.
Indeed. These problems arise because if the initiator of the warp field is in "normal" space (as it must be), then the travellers, being within the field, have no way to signal it, so as to turn it off or change its geometry.
If warp drive ever works, it is going to be a lot like railway travel. The superluminal "track" will have to have been set up beforehand. More Casey Jones than James Kirk.
Other Comments by Steve Zara
10. Comment #127871 by Mitchell Gilks on February 15, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Woah! five thousand light years away. Well we will never see it. Why does space have to be so damn huge? Why does light have to be so damn slow? Damn it god, if you are going to make the universe so freakin big, up the speed limit, it's far too slow. It's like the drive way of a kindergarden, we need it to be more like the autobomb. Other Comments by Mitchell Gilks
11. Comment #127877 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Steve.Sounds like the set-up envisaged in Carl Sagan's "Contact".
I now have the Casey Jones themetune on my brain!
Other Comments by Sally Luxmoore
12. Comment #127891 by Diacanu on February 15, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Steve-Yes, but what about the unobtainium?
Alcubierre's warp field requires a form of exotic negative-mass matter which has never been created, nor observed.
Chris Van der Broek revised Alcubierre's metric so that the warp is essenially a thin wormhole, thus minimizing the need for this negative mass matter down to a few pounds or so, but then, you still have to produce this stuff, and then you have the added problem of how do you squeeze your spaceship through the eye of the needle?
Other Comments by Diacanu
13. Comment #127909 by tooltroll on February 15, 2008 at 5:46 pm
. . . and I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords! Other Comments by tooltroll
14. Comment #127914 by Steve Zara on February 15, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Alcubierre's warp field requires a form of exotic negative-mass matter which has never been created, nor observed.
The parallel with wormhole physics is accurate. However, you can use negative energy to support the warp field (just like keeping a wormhole open). We know of real situations that involve negative energy. The Casimir effect could provide this (I will resist temptation to go into boring details), and we have actually observed this effect.
Other Comments by Steve Zara
15. Comment #127915 by Rational_G on February 15, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Come on, warp drive?Please......
However, only a matter of time before we image an earth like planet
Other Comments by Rational_G
16. Comment #127927 by mesomodel on February 15, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Hourglass,
I know this isn't about the Phoenix probe, but my god, I cannot wait for its landing.
It would be really huge if they found ANY sort of life frozen on the polar regions of Mars.
They're not looking for life and don't have the instruments to detect it unless it happens to be in view of one of the cameras. Mostly, they're trying to understand the history of water by excavating below the regolith to what has been suspected to be a water ice rich layer. The depth to this ice and the composition of the ice and the regolith above need to be better measured so that stability of subsurface ice with respect to the atmosphere can be better established.
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is slated to launch next year. That rover carries a mass spec (among other things) that has some capabilities for detecting organic compounds and possibly biomarkers. However, the atmosphere and probably the surface of Mars is highly oxidizing, and if there were ancient life, the biomarkers are almost certainly gone. MSL will have a drill that will permit access to subsurface material, so there's still a chance of finding something.
Other Comments by mesomodel
17. Comment #127929 by Rational_G on February 15, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Given the decent amount of mass exchange between Mars and Earth that has occurred over the eons I'd be surprised if there wasn't some bacteria on Mars. It probably came from Earth...... or vice versa! Other Comments by Rational_G
18. Comment #127930 by Rational_G on February 15, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Pretty exciting that the conclusion is that solar system analogs are not rare. The Drake equation is looking better all the time. Other Comments by Rational_G
19. Comment #127931 by mesomodel on February 15, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Rational_G
I'd be surprised if there wasn't some bacteria on Mars.
There are few bacteria that can survive in space or on the surface of Mars. Outside of low Earth orbit, your subjected to large doses of ionizing radiation, dessication from the vacuum of space, and temperature ranges many times that of Earth. Bacteria Radiodurans can survive in high radiation environments (it's been found in nuc reactor cores), but would still have other problems. Other bacteria, such as staphycococcus have survived limited deep space exposure.
If terrestrial bacteria did make it to Mars after surviving interplanetary transfer, they would find themselves in an extremely inhospitable environment: Radiation, cold, dessication, oxidation and almost certainly nothing to eat.
Other Comments by mesomodel
20. Comment #127934 by tooltroll on February 15, 2008 at 6:44 pm
9. Comment #127868 by Steve Zara on February 15, 2008 at 5:04 pm
...If warp drive ever works, it is going to be a lot like railway travel. The superluminal "track" will have to have been set up beforehand. More Casey Jones than James Kirk.
Naw, they'll just do a phase inversion of the antimatter deflector grid, and cross-circuit it with the subspace relays, to create quantum friction with the superluminal aether.
Or Scotty will fart, one or the other. . .
Seriously though, considering that a few decades ago, the very notion of warp drive was strictly fiction, I think that by the time we get to that level, we'll have figured out a practical means of control.
Now, the transporter, on the other hand, I consider a malodourous slab of fresh tripe.
IMO, if we ever attain transporter-type technology, it'll be more of a Stargate thingy that can pucker space to meet up with a distant locale, rather than something that dissolves you, transmits you, and reassembles you (in the case of Star Trek, without even a receiver, which makes no sense to me.) Of course, this would make warp drive obsolete. . .
Other Comments by tooltroll
21. Comment #127937 by Rational_G on February 15, 2008 at 7:03 pm
mesomodel:Hey, I never said it would be easy! ;-)
Good points.
Other Comments by Rational_G
22. Comment #127939 by babrock on February 15, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I am wondering why if this cosmic event that alowed this microlecing to take place hapened in March 06 and it lasted 10 days , why did it take till feb. 08 for Dennis Overbye to write this up. Also t title of t article is a bit missleading. It implies that more than just t two gas giants were found. I was exited about an earth like planet being found, but not this time. They are hard to find using that woble method as they cause such a tiny wobble, tho I think a few have been found.Other Comments by babrock
23. Comment #127942 by babrock on February 15, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Transporters themselves I donot think would be all that imposible, simply changing mater to energy, keeping track of some info, then energy back to mater. that is about it for a lump of lead say, tho keeping track of t info needed to transport anything living would require an almost infinet amount of info, a bit beyond t capacity of any computerOther Comments by babrock
24. Comment #127945 by mesomodel on February 15, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Babrock,
I am wondering why if this cosmic event that alowed this microlecing to take place hapened in March 06 and it lasted 10 days , why did it take till feb. 08 for Dennis Overbye to write this up.
Don't underestimate the time it takes to reduce the raw data to something useful. Also, note that the author list contains dozens of names. Many of these folks are amateur astronomers that contributed the data, all of which needed to be calibrated and processed into a coherent data set. Not an easy task. On top of this, most scientists these days have many responsibilities beyond just doing science.
Other Comments by mesomodel
25. Comment #127947 by Diacanu on February 15, 2008 at 7:20 pm
babrock-Yeah, if you tried to linearly map the information, but someone might find some kind of quantum memory or something that makes particles jump back into previous states.
Who knows?
Other Comments by Diacanu
26. Comment #127948 by Diacanu on February 15, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Course, it'd be far easier to drop down a robot in a landing pod of some kind, and then work it via VR. Other Comments by Diacanu
27. Comment #127949 by mesomodel on February 15, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Rational G,It's not easy, but it could happen. Just very unlikely. It is more plausible that bacteria from early Earth might have made there way to early Mars. Evidence suggests that early mars--about 3 to 4 b.y.a--had liquid water on the surface. This likely means that the atmosphere was thick enough to provide a greenhouse effect sufficient to keep the temperature above freezing. The thick atmosphere might also block some of the radiation, and if Mars' core had not yet solidified there would have been a magnetic field. Mars does have a crustal magnetic field that almost certainly points to a magnetic dynamo at some point in its evolution.
The liquid water was probably highly acidic. Support for this hypothesis is the abundance of sulfate rich evaporite-like deposits and a complete lack of carbonates. There are plenty of terrestrial bacteria that could survive in such an environment.
If the early Mars environment changed slowly enough, it is possible that the bacteria could evolve and adapt to the environment. So, while life as we know it is not likely to be sitting on the surface of Mars at present, life as we don't know it might. Or, it could have just gone underground where the conditions are slightly less harsh.
Other Comments by mesomodel
28. Comment #127962 by MPhil on February 15, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Casimir effect observed solely when two metal-plates in a high-vacuum are brought together very very close, so that between them, only virtual particles of certain cardinal-multiples of certain frequencies can form and annihilate, while outside of these plates these limitations do not apply, so that between these plates what you get 'negative pressure' from absolute vacuum?
Don't see how that could we could harvest that on a large scale - or even apply it.
Do scientists currently work on this?
Other Comments by MPhil
29. Comment #127963 by Rational_G on February 15, 2008 at 8:01 pm
mesomodel:Thanks for the info.
Here's hoping we find some of those hardy little critters somewhere else in the solar system besides Earth. The planetary missions are awesome from an engineering, scientific and cosmic perspective. Hope we find the money and the wisdom to do many more
Europa or bust!
Other Comments by Rational_G
30. Comment #127966 by MPhil on February 15, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Tooltroll,
of course beaming is possible... you just have to carefully adjust the Heisenberg-compensators :)
But seriously... beaming has been done, if not in the way Star Trek fans (such as myself) would have wanted it. The quantum state of a photon has been sucessfully 'copied' to another one, thus making it bear the exact same information. It has afaik even been done with electrons...
...that is if I remember all of this correctly. It's been a few years since I've heard of this.
Other Comments by MPhil
31. Comment #127967 by mesomodel on February 15, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Rational G,I'm a Titan-phile, but I'll take Europa in a pinch.
Titan also probably has a water ocean beneath the crust. And it has an atmosphere. And it isn't subject to intense Jovian radiation.
NASA is (re-)undertaking three flagship studies this year. One for Europa, one for Titan, and for a general Jupiter icy moon mission. One is expected to be selected shortly thereafter. So, hopefully, we'll see something heading to the outer solar system by ~2016.
I do hope that we find ET life, hopefully in my lifetime. It would be just another indication of how insignificant and perhaps ordinary we are in the grand scale of the universe.
Other Comments by mesomodel
32. Comment #127973 by Rational_G on February 15, 2008 at 8:24 pm
mesomodel:Titan works for me also! The Cassini Huygens mission is outstanding. Love those radar flybys of Titan that are still going on. More missions!
Other Comments by Rational_G
33. Comment #128007 by MaxD on February 15, 2008 at 9:24 pm
"Or scotty will fart."
-That slayed me especially after all the Trek babble.
Other Comments by MaxD
34. Comment #128063 by stereoroid on February 16, 2008 at 2:32 am
This is coming up in the RSS feed as "Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered by NY Times"... and the previous story as "Virus immunity 'created in lab' by BBC". I know these media organisations need to diversify, but I didn't think they'd go that far... 8-) Other Comments by stereoroid
35. Comment #128066 by Quetzalcoatl on February 16, 2008 at 2:40 am
Stereoroid-
yeah, and the BBC are making the public pay for it via the licence fee. Talk about exceeding your remit!
Other Comments by Quetzalcoatl
36. Comment #128067 by phatbat on February 16, 2008 at 2:42 am
Wow Steve Zara i had no idea that the warp drive concept was that far along (all be it a long way off). but if there is one thing the future of our species depends on it is the ability to make it to another planet quite fast.
Theoreticaly speaking, how fast would it go and what's the 0-60 on one of those, i bet its better than a Veyron.
Steve what do you do for a living?
Other Comments by phatbat
37. Comment #128068 by Quetzalcoatl on February 16, 2008 at 2:49 am
On a more serious note I love articles like this. Since the chances of there being large gaps between stars and their planets are remote, it's likely that in the future better telescopes will find rocky planets in this system, and probably in plenty of others as well.
MPhil- as far as I know the scenario you discussed is the only place where the Casimir Effect has been observed. Might be wrong, though.
And while Alcubierre's warp drive is a nice theory, it's hard to see at the moment how we'll get around the practical problems with it. Consensus seems to be that it's impossible to realise, at least for the foreseeable future. Looks like, at the moment, generation starships are likely to be the only way humans will spread to other systems.
Other Comments by Quetzalcoatl
38. Comment #128072 by Steve Zara on February 16, 2008 at 3:15 am
Don't see how that could we could harvest that on a large scale - or even apply it.
Do scientists currently work on this?
You are absolutely correct about the Casimir effect, and in saying it could "provide" negative energy, that missed out any possible mechanism for harvesting. All we know is that negative energy is "in there somewhere".
Theoreticaly speaking, how fast would it go and what's the 0-60 on one of those, i bet its better than a Veyron.
There is no upper speed limit as far as I know... depends how much energy you use.
And while Alcubierre's warp drive is a nice theory, it's hard to see at the moment how we'll get around the practical problems with it.
This is a huge understatement :)
Steve what do you do for a living?
I write software.
Other Comments by Steve Zara
39. Comment #128080 by phil rimmer on February 16, 2008 at 3:49 am
it's hard to see at the moment how we'll get around the practical problems with it.
Nah! I got some power tools for Yule and my trusty soldering iron still works, and best of all I have the plans here-
http://www.google.com/patents?id=oH2bAAAAEBAJ&dq=Alcubierre
Other Comments by phil rimmer
40. Comment #128084 by phil rimmer on February 16, 2008 at 4:19 am
This is one I made earlier...http://www.google.com/patents?id=-FUVAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=gravitomagnetic
However, my favourite massless thruster is the asymmetric microwave, very high Q, resonant cavity. This stands a good chance of working. Whilst superluminal travel isn't on, given a Duracell Casimir Ultra battery it will go the distance. We'll need lifespans of tens of thousands of years, however, and a lot of patience.
Other Comments by phil rimmer
41. Comment #128088 by Logicel on February 16, 2008 at 4:50 am
Tooltroll (Comment #20), you made my day! Hilarious.But if FRESH tripe is malodourous, I would hate to smell beyond-its-due-date tripe. (I have only cautiously peered at tripe wrapped in vacuum sealed plastic in the meat counter, never smelled or tasted it)
Astronomy has come a long way, baby.
Other Comments by Logicel
42. Comment #128096 by babrock on February 16, 2008 at 6:41 am
I am mposibly T bigest Star Trek fan you are likely to meet. I think t idea of "boldly going" guided by t "prime directive" is a reasonably decent way to live ones life, much supirior to either of t three desert dogmas plaging us curently. They never did tho work out t problems involved w/ scientific problems of varios aspects, particularly t transporter. In an atempt to resolve t problem that we have been writing about some scipt writer came up w/ t Hiesenberg compensaters, basicaly an imposible problem solving devise. I need to pick me up a couple of those when i get t chance. T closest I know of any real solution is this idea involving holagrms and mirrors. T mirrors somehow transmit t info for copying w/o having to have t info digitized.Other Comments by babrock
43. Comment #128097 by Quetzalcoatl on February 16, 2008 at 6:47 am
Phil Rimmer-
Nah! I got some power tools for Yule and my trusty soldering iron still works, and best of all I have the plans here
Don't forget the duct tape, you can't build a functioning warp drive without it!
Other Comments by Quetzalcoatl
44. Comment #128107 by jeepyjay on February 16, 2008 at 7:44 am
OGLE and MicroFUN what great and appropriate Acronyms! Other Comments by jeepyjay
45. Comment #128109 by sarah95 on February 16, 2008 at 7:55 am
Alan Boss, a theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said, "The fact that these are hard to detect by microlensing means there must be a good number of them â€" solar system analogues are not rare."
Wohoo! "not rare" sounds good to me!
Don't forget the duct tape, you can't build a functioning warp drive without it!
Neither can we forget to harness the power of Scotty's farts to maximize the efficacy of said warp drive.
Other Comments by sarah95
46. Comment #128134 by GBile on February 16, 2008 at 9:35 am
5000 light years ?If we just had a big powerful telescope to watch their Noah with his ark floating in their flood, then we would know ...
Other Comments by GBile
47. Comment #128137 by robotaholic on February 16, 2008 at 9:48 am
everyone here are know-it-alls- on every subject-kind of annoying - about the article - i really wish i was on the microFUN team! Other Comments by robotaholic
48. Comment #128222 by Dog Boots on February 16, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Damn, this article actually made my eyes wet....not from the promise of other solar systems like our own, but from hearing of the technique used to discover this..."microlensing". I hadn't heard of that method before, and it just amazes we what science is capable of now. It really puts creazynists and other fools in perspective - why do we even bother? What have they got? Nothing at all. A disgrace to mankind.Other Comments by Dog Boots
49. Comment #128432 by Quetzalcoatl on February 17, 2008 at 2:15 am
Sarah95-
Neither can we forget to harness the power of Scotty's farts to maximize the efficacy of said warp drive
See, and I was trying not to focus on that. You've dragged the thread down, now.
:-)
Other Comments by Quetzalcoatl
50. Comment #128453 by LorienRyan on February 17, 2008 at 3:34 am
5000 light years away - does that mean we are seeing it as it was 5000 years ago? Other Comments by LorienRyan
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1. Comment #127846 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Quick, God -- send a Jesus there.Other Comments by Sally Luxmoore