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Major new exoplanet findings to be announced next Monday

Wanderlust

Wanderlust

Captain
Captain
There will be an online news conference next Monday, September 12 at 4:00 pm (16:00) CEST (7:00 am PT / 10 am ET) to discuss significant new findings related to exoplanets, to be held by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) regarding its High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) program.

Also, the current confirmed exoplanet count is now 604!
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Oh man, what are they going to reveal?!

http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann11061/

Will post results from the conference in this thread.
 
I bet they will find something that may or may not prove that there is an increased possibility of extraterrestrial life. :vulcan:
 
RoJoHen said:
I bet they will find something that may or may not prove that there is an increased possibility of extraterrestrial life. :vulcan:
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It is possible that they would announce that they've discovered an exoplanet whose atmospheric composition can be so far explained only by biological activity. It's just about right that we discovered something like that now if planets with microbial life are common.
 
HARPS is the instrument that discovered the four confirmed Gliese planets along with several others. I think they are going to release data on newly confirmed planets. Perhaps they have found some more small ones, possibly even closer to the mass of the earth.
 
scotthm said:
Less than exciting.

They've found a "low mass" planet near the edge of a star's "habitable zone".

space.com

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Are you kidding? Im wetting my pants. 50 new planets with 1 instrument. 50 PALNETS!

HD 85512 is the most stirring.

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MORE

82 Eidani

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I wonder how many million planets it will take before the people who are always looking away from Earth realise they're on the most amazing planet in the galaxy.
 
Deckerd said:
I wonder how many million planets it will take before the people who are always looking away from Earth realise they're on the most amazing planet in the galaxy.
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Thats debatable [and a downright ridiculous thing to say]. I could say Venus is the most amazing planet in the galaxy. That's only my opinion though.

This is the only planet we've been able to study in detail.

Every planet is amazing in its own way. Are you suggesting we shut up and stop looking?
 
Fang66 said:
Deckerd said:
I wonder how many million planets it will take before the people who are always looking away from Earth realise they're on the most amazing planet in the galaxy.
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Umm how the F would you know?
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ExplorerAtHeart said:
Thats debatable [and a downright ridiculous thing to say]. I could say Venus is the most amazing planet in the galaxy. That's only my opinion though.
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sojourner said:
To explore other planets is to better understand our own.
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a world of crystal spires, fiery seas of lava and plains of red grass with four moons and green skies would be a damn site more amazing.
 
captcalhoun said:
a world of crystal spires, fiery seas of lava and plains of red grass with four moons and green skies would be a damn site more amazing.
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If we could actually travel to such places I'd get excited. Just knowing that there may be such a planet out there doesn't excite me too much though.

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captcalhoun said:
a world of crystal spires, fiery seas of lava and plains of red grass with four moons and green skies would be a damn site more amazing.
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Probably not to the people living there. They'd probably barely even notice. Plus I imagine four moons would play merry hell with the weather and tides and tectonic activity....boring planets are safer. ;)
 
To boldly go...the idea that we should turn away from the stars and just sigh at our lovely world (it is lovely, but...), is the oddest sentiment on a Star Trek board.

That's like saying, "My town is awesome. Why would I ever want to visit another town, or even learn about it?"

Why? Because it has people you've never met, things you've never seen, things to discover all it's own. Because it's THERE, and we are who we are. We are EXPLORERS."

It is one of the reasons we, as a people, despite all our flaws, are pretty darn cool.
 
captcalhoun said:
a world of crystal spires, fiery seas of lava and plains of red grass with four moons and green skies would be a damn site more amazing.
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You could also get out of the basement and travel around this world and then rethink the statement. ;)

I'm reminded of the "avatar blues". People who don't get out thinking that Pandora was soooo beautiful and that Earth's nature sucks, some of them even thinking about suicide because of that. I mean seriously, what the fuck are they smoking?
 
Reverend said:
captcalhoun said:
a world of crystal spires, fiery seas of lava and plains of red grass with four moons and green skies would be a damn site more amazing.
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Probably not to the people living there. They'd probably barely even notice. Plus I imagine four moons would play merry hell with the weather and tides and tectonic activity....boring planets are safer. ;)
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Unless it was 4 Phobos sized things ;)
 
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