Kepler space telescope spots five Earth-sized planets in our galaxy

NASA scientists have announced Kepler has spotted five planets about the size of Earth, orbiting stars in our galaxy.

These planets are orbiting in what is known as the habitable zone, which puts them at a distance from their suns where liquid water could exist. Liquid water is a key ingredient for life to form.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/02/nasa.kepler.planets/index.html?hpt=C2

it's a process, and slow at that, but with this progress, something tells me that in this decade we will find proof of actual physical evidence of (intelligent) life on other planets. hopefully to our benefit, of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IVIyP7bvlE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ-bNOy_CKQ&feature=related

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
NASA scientists have announced Kepler has spotted five planets about the size of Earth, orbiting stars in our galaxy.

These planets are orbiting in what is known as the habitable zone, which puts them at a distance from their suns where liquid water could exist. Liquid water is a key ingredient for life to form.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/02/nasa.kepler.planets/index.html?hpt=C2

it's a process, and slow at that, but with this progress, something tells me that in this decade we will find proof of actual physical evidence of (intelligent) life on other planets. hopefully to our benefit, of course.

Cool. I hope to have my thesis vindicated. I wrote it about 10 years ago. I cannot find it...but I came up with a conclusion on how many planets would be in the "sweet spot" that were earth-sized/density. I think I came up with 3000 in our galaxy, alone. Maybe it was 5000. I certainly am not going to do the research, again, and write out the calcuation. It took me two weeks to do that.

3000-5000. well that's obviously probably just a hunderd light years radius-wise from our planet. our galaxy is 100 million light years in scope.

there must be millions or billions of planets in our galaxy. and millions that may be in that "cinderella zone".

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
3000-5000. well that's obviously probably just a hunderd light years radius-wise from our planet. our galaxy is 100 million light years in scope.

there must be millions or billions of planets in our galaxy. and millions that may be in that "cinderella zone".

That's probably true. BUT, what astronomical data do you think I had to work with 10 years ago?

Originally posted by dadudemon
That's probably true. BUT, what astronomical data do you think I had to work with 10 years ago?

i wager that there were tons of sources that contained the info you needed and then some in '01. the exoplanet concept's been around for years and years before then. i'm not saying your wrong. if those were the numbers you came up with due to your research then that's what you found.

i was just generalizing and therorizing while what you had was more concentrated..

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
i wager that there were tons of sources that contained the info you needed and then some in '01. the exoplanet concept's been around for years and years before then. i'm not saying your wrong. if those were the numbers you came up with due to your research then that's what you found.

i was just generalizing and therorizing while what you had was more concentrated..

Then you are definitely not aware of the leaps in planatery discovery we've made in the last 10 years.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Then you are definitely not aware of the leaps in planatery discovery we've made in the last 10 years.

?

sounds like you're either refering to yourself 10 years ago or you think i've been living in a cave the whole time. or both..

and if you think you're definetely right you couldn't be more wrong. i am fully aware of the leaps we've made over the last 10 years with how far we've come with multiple discoveries of exoplanets, how they're found, nasa's keplar program and it's mission, new finding in astrophysics, astronomy and astrobiology just to name a couple of subjects.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
?

sounds like you're either refering to yourself 10 years ago or you think i've been living in a cave the whole time. or both..

How about neither?

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
and if you think you're definetely right you couldn't be more wrong. i am fully aware of the leaps we've made over the last 10 years with how far we've come with multiple discoveries of exoplanets, how they're found, nasa's keplar program and it's mission, new finding in astrophysics, astronomy and astrobiology just to name a couple of subjects.

It seems there is a language barrier.

I did not refer to simply discovering more planets: that would not be a leap.

I refer to specific techniques that have developed over the last 10 years that have allowed us to discover more planets that we, otherwise, did not know existed. Measuring local gravity can only take you so far. That's "old school" and it lead to grossly understimated planet counts.

The numbers tossed around a decade ago were theoretical, no matter how practically likely they were. The hard science on the subject has primarily happened in the last 10 to 15 years.

Those aren't planets, they're SPACE STATIONS.

planet =/= life, and very much =/= intelligence that would be comparable to human intelligence

but ya, I love that people interpret evolution as having "end goals"

Originally posted by Rogue Jedi
Those aren't planets, they're SPACE STATIONS.

Where the **** are we

Originally posted by skekUng
The numbers tossed around a decade ago were theoretical, no matter how practically likely they were. The hard science on the subject has primarily happened in the last 10 to 15 years.

But the size of the galaxy and how many solar systems/planets it contains is still a theory, right?

Originally posted by Robtard
But the size of the galaxy and how many solar systems/planets it contains is still a theory, right?

the number of planets in our solar system is a theory

but yes, it is still speculative, I assume we haven't counted them all

Originally posted by Robtard
But the size of the galaxy and how many solar systems/planets it contains is still a theory, right?

The dimensions of the galaxy are pretty well known but the exact number of stars is kind of up in the air.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
The dimensions of the galaxy are pretty well known but the exact number of stars is kind of up in the air.

Or did a couple nerds throw out some numbers and people were "meh, they're smart and I'm not bothering to check the math."?

Originally posted by Rogue Jedi
Those aren't planets, they're SPACE STATIONS.

Owned by the Chinese.