badastronomy.com — The European Southern Observatory is reporting that they have found the most Earthlike planet yet orbiting another star. It has about 1.5 times the Earth?s diameter, and five times its mass. This makes it the smallest extrasolar planet yet found (two other planets have already been found orbiting that star, with 15 and 8 times Earth?s mass).
Apr 24, 2007 View in Crawl 4
nitrojunky24Apr 25, 2007
cool stuff I propose we call it earth2 or maybe it got aliens on it? I bet there thinking those idiots just now found us?
aaalemanApr 25, 2007
Huge news from BADastronomy.com?I'll wait for something from Nature, or Scientific American, or ...
cyphin6Apr 25, 2007
Ya we should be able to reach the planet to conquer them after about 20,000 years or so of traveling, Definitely possible.....
nickmilneApr 25, 2007
Could support life, huh? GreatBUT WILL IT BLEND
vintagemudApr 25, 2007
How about we first concentrate on fixing our planet before we go trying to screw up another one...Even as a fan of the fantasy of extra-terrestrial life and space exploration glorified by the movies and tv, I can't agree with the billions of dollars that have been wasted on our failure of a space program when there are so many more pressing issues that need to be addressed before we can even consider visiting other planets.If we can't stay civil within our own nations, still have the poor and destitute, have illiterate adults, or eliminate the widespread corruption in our own governments, what chance to we have of impressing another species? How can we stand by, watching as our planet slowly (maybe not as slowly as we think) disintegrates before us, with so many species of animals going extinct by the year, polluting our air, water and land.Perhaps the creators of The Matrix weren't so far off when they described the human race as a virus, spreading, consuming everything in our paths, until there is nothing left.
honeydealApr 25, 2007
The discovery returns a feeling of optimism for me. I mean, all the negative angles can't take away from this the potential - if a small one - that we Terrestrials may not be alone in the cosmos, and that life recognisable to us - as life - could be out there somewhere.
mulvidonApr 26, 2007
cool
scottogatoJun 12, 2008
And with a Red Dwarf star as well. These usually have longer lifespans than our Sun.A bigger planet with a possible longer lifespan than that of our own planet (based upon the lifespan of our sun) and it's only 20 light years away.This is why I've grown to love astronomy.