ArniePie From Belgium, joined Aug 2005, 1265 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (7 years 8 months 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 2287 times:
If you see at what speed they are discovering Exo-planets(80+?) these days (a new technology only used for close by stars and relatively heavy planets with a fast orbit), I would be very surprised if in the future they wouldn't find a whole bunch of Earth size comparable Exo-planets.
Lehpron From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 7028 posts, RR: 22 Reply 2, posted (7 years 5 months 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 1938 times:
Quoting HAWK21M (Thread starter): What are the possibilities of another Planet similiar to ours out there somewhere.
I'd say 100%, and to me it is quite obvious.
That said, the possibilities of finding another Planet similiar to ours out there somewhere, in our lifetimes or across many lifetimes, is another story. Usually, in instances where processes take too long the younger generation will not see things as the older generation once did and eventually give up. If anyone is going to find it, it has to be one generation's own crusade, so to speak.
IMO, unless fully educated, the next generation is not going to have the respect for what we have done.
The meaning of life is curiosity; we were put on this planet to explore opportunities.
GDB From United Kingdom, joined May 2001, 12715 posts, RR: 80 Reply 3, posted (7 years 5 months 12 hours ago) and read 1913 times:
I would not be so optimistic.
Sure, plenty of exo planets being found, in just a decade since the first, the numbers have been staggering.
But! In most cases the exo solar systems, or what we can detect of them so far, are most unlike ours.
Mainly featuring huge, often bigger than Jupiter, worlds orbiting much closer to the parent star than Mercury does the Sun.
You won't get Earth like planets in these.
Solar systems like ours, with it's stability, with at least one planet just the right distance from a single, stable star, with some giants further out to absorb many incoming comets, allowing intelligent life to rise, with only mass extinction events rarely, you get the picture.
Ones like ours might well exist, but they might well be uncommon, or least at very great distances from each other.
Being as the nearest star is an unimaginable distance from us, using current or reasonably projected technology, it aint going to be like Star Trek.
But being in the Galactic 'suburbs' as we are, allows further stability, much increasing the chances of Earth like planets with life.
Being nearer the centre of a Galaxy, more stars closer together, much too unstable, too many Novas etc, too often, too close.
It would be nice to think that the emerging imaging technology could allow detection of Earth like planets, maybe sooner than we think.
But if we succeed, then what?
Too far to go directly, any radio transmissions from them, or lasers perhaps?
Whatever the answer to that, do we send similar?
A big cultural question for sure.
Flyf15 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (7 years 5 months 4 hours ago) and read 1869 times:
The problem with finding solar systems like ours is not that they're rare, its that we do not currently have the technology that can find them.
Exo-solar planets are found using two methods. One sees the wobble of the star (requires a very large planet with a very short orbit time - ie: close to the star) and the other sees a periodic slight drop in brightness of the star (requires a very large planet to pass regularly between the star and us - ie: lined up correctly).
Someday we will develop technology to find planets like Earth, but it can't be done now. I am very sure that the universe is full of planets like ours. They're too easy to form for ours to be the only (or one of a small group) one.
GDB From United Kingdom, joined May 2001, 12715 posts, RR: 80 Reply 6, posted (7 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1832 times:
I think the technology to build telescopic arrays to detect Earth like planets is near.
Then there is launching them, I'm presuming despite the advances in ground based telescope technology recently, the best chance of Earth like planet detection is from space.
NASA are set to build a heavy lifter to support the planned Lunar programme, you thinking what I am, as regards other applications for this proposed launcher?
VirginFlyer From New Zealand, joined Sep 2000, 4502 posts, RR: 50 Reply 8, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 1643 times:
OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, which was announced last week, is the most Earth-like extrasolar planet yet discovered. It is orbiting a red or white dwarf star at a distance of between 2 and 4 AU (1 Astronomical Unit is the distance from the Sun to the Earth). Its mass is about 5 times Earth's, and may be either a rocky or a gas planet.
2H4 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 8950 posts, RR: 62 Reply 9, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 1622 times:
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Another thing...if we were to graph our detection capabilities over the past couple hundred or so years, there would be an obviously huge spike in the last 20. If we've been able to detect what we have in the past 20 years, who's to say what we'll find in the next 50?
David L From United Kingdom, joined May 1999, 9218 posts, RR: 42 Reply 10, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1548 times:
Quoting Lehpron (Reply 2): the possibilities of finding another Planet similiar to ours out there somewhere, in our lifetimes or across many lifetimes, is another story.
That's the disappointing part. And even if/when we do, there's the small matter of getting there.
Dw747400 From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 1244 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 1538 times:
I have little doubt that planets similiar to earth exist, and it would not surprise me if they support life of some type. After all, there are still arguments about the number of planets in our own solar system (eight to ten depending which astronomer you ask these days).
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