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Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered

nytimes.com — 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.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 15, 2008

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  • nizzy1115, on 02/15/2008, -0/+51Scientists later realize the light bent the image and they were really looking at our own solar system years in the past.
  • Slavidskis, on 02/15/2008, -2/+30Hope, they like The Beatles...
  • lpmiller, on 02/15/2008, -0/+23clearly, their Katamari was pretty tiny.
  • Surfrock66, on 02/15/2008, -5/+26We shall call him "mini sol."
  • PtoS382, on 02/15/2008, -0/+20What if there is a larger Solar System and we are just one in a giant shrinking line of Solar Systems?
  • notcarsondaly, on 02/15/2008, -2/+20Maybe it looks smaller because it is 5000 light-years away.
  • rancemo, on 02/15/2008, -1/+17This is where midgets came from.
  • AsSubtleAsABrik, on 02/15/2008, -0/+15No time in my life do I feel more dumbfounded than when I read some of the comments people post on digg.
  • AsSubtleAsABrik, on 02/15/2008, -0/+14Do you have any idea how far away 5,000 light-years is? Imagine how fast you would be going if you ran around the earth 8 times in one second. Then do it for 5000 years.
  • matt510, on 02/15/2008, -0/+14You would have nothing to see. All the can see are little dots moving around. The telescopes do not have the resolution to see any sort of details.
  • KraftDinner101, on 02/15/2008, -0/+10I think we should develop interstellar travel first. Hell, we haven't even gone to Mars yet.
  • deviouskoopa, on 02/15/2008, -3/+13The title reminded me of Men in Black for some reason.
  • Surfrock66, on 02/15/2008, -0/+9I have never seen someone comment on the wrong front page story before. The Cracked article was good though.
  • diggum85, on 02/15/2008, -0/+9Not quite parallel, slightly askew...
  • iignotus, on 02/15/2008, -0/+9Holy intergalactic ***** there is no possible way for me to describe how much I hate pointless, vapid comments like this. Digg me down for flaming but they're absolutely mind-rotting.

    "Wow, what a fascinating story! Things like these sure make me proud to be alive/American/young/Chinese/a potato!"
  • adequateftw, on 02/15/2008, -2/+10... To explore strange new worlds...
  • OneLess, on 02/15/2008, -1/+7That was an entire galaxy in a locket, though. This is just a solar system that's potentially similar to ours and smaller.
  • yujie, on 02/15/2008, -0/+6When do we get to invade with our Space Armada?
  • diggum85, on 02/15/2008, -1/+6Or call it New New England. We can secretly film their planetary defenses before invading.
  • revjustin2, on 02/15/2008, -0/+4Thank goodness. I've been looking for a smaller version to take with me to work.
  • sgtbutterscotch, on 02/15/2008, -0/+4Thats what concept artists are for.
  • DivineMonkey, on 02/15/2008, -0/+4I love how narrow minded astronomers and most of the rest of the population for that matter. The sooner people realize our planet/solar system/existence is nothing special the better. I'm a space geek myself but i'm never surprised by these articles, at least not as surprised as the scientists always seem to be. It just amazes me that they never thought there could be another star with a body of planets orbiting or that there could be another planet with water. Just do the math and get a bit of common sense for christ sake.
  • matt510, on 02/15/2008, -0/+3Yes, because we are running out of space and there are such clear signs that it cannot sustain us... oh wait...
  • a1532b, on 02/15/2008, -0/+3Wow dude, did you even read what iignotus said or did you just type a reply in the first available box?
  • inactive, on 02/15/2008, -2/+5Huuuuuuuuuuge defeat for Flat earthers!

    Huge
  • breadfred, on 02/15/2008, -0/+3Makes me tired thinking about it
  • nericester, on 02/15/2008, -1/+4Its like our universe but they wear Cowboy hats...
  • Sludgehammer, on 02/16/2008, -0/+3Nah, 5000 years is a blink of a eye in stellar terms, heck even a million years isn't too long. If there were any sentient life there though, it's quite possible that they discovered civilization, technology and killed themselves, all before the light from their sun reached earth.
  • AsSubtleAsABrik, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2What is it with these articles about space and their insistence to not put any pictures?
  • adequateftw, on 02/16/2008, -0/+2Guess I have to finish this: ... To boldly go where no man has gone before!
  • Synova, on 02/16/2008, -0/+2Unfortunately if we shipped our species, we would all evolve to life aboard the spaceship and when we arrived 60 generations later living on the ship would probably be better than the planet itself.
  • colihondro, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2We are all made of stars.
  • ProgressBar, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2... To seek out new life and new civilizations...
  • kingvik, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2Silly people that think that the earth is flat; everybody knows it's shaped like a frisbee, how do you think it flys so easily thru space.
  • YoctoYotta, on 02/16/2008, -0/+1Create a hotmail account, spend 45 seconds registering, and keep your peace.
  • Synova, on 02/16/2008, -0/+1If you reach into a bag of 1000 random objects and 2 are exactly the same, it's a reasonable assumption that you did not find the only 2 objects that were exactly alike.

    Anyway, the quote is "may be more typical," sounds like a concrete generalization. /sarcasm
  • JorgeGT, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1link broken! :___(
  • matt510, on 02/16/2008, -0/+1I don't think you understand odds. You cannot base statistics on 1 piece of data. We may feel that it is likely or even want to believe it is a fair assumption, but statistics and odds don't say that at all. It may be the case that there are many more examples out there, but finding one does not help with probability. The ONLY thing it tells us is that the probability is not 0 (and even the, there is a pretty wide margin of error in cases like this: the system looks like the relative spacing and size of planets matches our in some way, but they don't actually know if there are any Earth sized planets there).
  • sjbdallas, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Only if there's a version of me with a beard.
  • Ayradv, on 02/16/2008, -1/+2there is life outside the blogosphere?
  • ProgressBar, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Do you know the odds of them seeing a system like that on an event as rare as a microlensing event? I think it's a fair assumption.
  • madm0nk, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1It is very possible that within our lifetimes we might find undeniable scientific proof that there is life outside of this biosphere we call earth. That alone makes life worth living. If only we could travel there.
  • thedragon4453, on 02/17/2008, -0/+1When we realize that it has oil.
  • imisseowyn, on 02/16/2008, -0/+1There are artist's concept pictures at http://www.msnbc.msn.com.
  • Nicosil, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Not sure why you're being dugg down, I liked the Futurama reference.
  • inactive, on 02/15/2008, -1/+2how did you get out?
  • ecobites, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1it is on the site www.ecobites.com not the user, no peace !!!!
  • lewhich, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1The question is, do they have oil? if so when can we invade!
  • sjbdallas, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1And it contains a shrinking line of us? I want to meet macro-me and nano-me.
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