DISCOVERY OF 42 ALIEN PLANETS

KoG Turok

New member
A team of amateurs has discovered evidence for 42 alien planets, including a Jupiter-size world that could potentially be habitable, by sifting through data from a NASA spacecraft.

Forty volunteers with the crowd-sourcing Planet Hunters project discovered the new planet candidates, which include 15 potentially habitable worlds and PH2 b, a Jupiter-size planet that the team confirmed to be in the habitable zone of its parent star.

This is the second time Planet Hunters project, which is overseen by Zooniverse, has confirmed a new exoplanet discovery. What's more, several candidate planets found by the project may be in the habitable zones of their parent stars. These candidates are awaiting confirmation by professional astronomers.

Researchers suggested this bonanza of planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone around a star, a habitable zone in which conditions are liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface and potentially supportlife, could mean there is a "traffic jam" of worlds where life could exist, project officials said.

"These are planet candidates that slipped through the net, being missed by professional astronomers and rescued by volunteers in front of their web browsers,” said the University of Oxford's Chris Lintott, who helms the Zooniverse, in a statement. “It's remarkable to think that absolutely anyone can discover a planet.”

Life on an 'Avatar'-like moon
The planet PH2 b was found using data from NASA's prolific Kepler Space Telescope and confirmed with 99.9 percent confidence by observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Ph2 b is considered much too large to host life. However, any moons orbiting the planet could be strong candidates, astronomers said. The atmospheric temperature on the planet would range between 86 and minus 126 degrees Fahrenheit (30 and minus 88 degrees Celsius) in the habitable zone.

“Any moon around this newly discovered, Jupiter-sized planet might be habitable," stated Ji Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University. He is lead author of a paper about the discoveries, which has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal and is available on the pre-publishing website Arxiv.

If a theoretical moon were to host life, it would likely have a rocky core, plus a greenhouse atmosphere of some sort that could have liquid water on its surface, the researchers said.

"It’s very similar to what was depicted in the movie ‘Avatar’ – the habitable moon Pandora around a giant planet, Polyphemus," Wang added.

A telltale dim
Volunteers spotted PH2 b by watching its parent star. As the planet passed in front of the star, the apparent brightness from Earth dimmed.

This is one of two commonly used techniques for finding exoplanets ; the other is looking for wobbles in a star's gravityas a planet speeds around it.

Excluding PH2 b, citizen scientists recently discovered 42 planetary candidates, with 20 of those likely in their respective stars' habitable regions.

"These detections nearly double the number of gas giant planet candidates orbiting at habitable zone distances," the paper stated.

Planet Hunters includes participation from Oxford, Yale and several other institutions. Volunteers pour over data from Kepler. Once the strongest candidates are identified, professional astronomers take a look at them.

Planet Hunters has found 48 candidate planets so far. The first confirmed planet, PH1, was revealed in October 2011.

To learn how to participate in the Planet Hunters project, visit: http://www.planethunters.org/
 

KoG Jehuty

New member
We have been aware of several habitable planets since the 80's/90's, we still have no means of getting to those planets yet with the great distance. It is a shame really. Once we develop a means of accelerating to extreme speeds while maintain equal G-force within the confinements of a ****pit, then we should think about venturing to these planets.
 

Lady Valor 7711

New member
I'm always reading about this stuff. Fascinating I say. They're supposedly doing a combination of trying to build vessels that can sustain life and reach those top speeds, but also trying to find a way to increase the human life span so people can actually live to go on such adventures. Basically, even if we hit the speed of light, it would take 44 or so years to reach a planet they are 80% certain is habitable and possibly contains life now. It's one heck of a stretch, but some scientist believe both scientific achievements can be reached and in our lifetime. Downfall being the possibility that those at least 13 and up, are already too old for whatever life expanding thing they conjure up
 

JimmyKuddo

New member
Well any attempt at traveling to another planet seems to take life times.

So 1st you'll need a transport that can be launched and travel as fast as possible without falling apart and or destroying its precious cargo. There are many things that can damage and possibly destroy any craft between point A and B.

Reconnaissance using our best available equipment and manpower, coupled along with including sensors, weapons, and tools in the craft to keep it out of harms way and in working order.

Personally I'd bet on a seeds project with a crew of any combination of robots/people.

In the long run, after forward bases on other planets are established copying people on the cellular level and transmitting the data to planets to recreate would be faster, safer, and more economic. It makes no sense to destroy and recreate a person so that will have to do.

Teleporting via manipulating the forces of space would be the last step and may likely be either impossible or impossible to wield. Were it possible it'd likely over take the clone from point A to B because it'd be instantaneous and wouldn't likely require destroying & rebuilding it on the other side.

I like this thread. It's interesting, and we're just getting started.
 
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Lady Valor 7711

New member
Yea that's why one part of getting these missions underway was to try and extend human life. The fastest they feel they can get a ship to go would still take 44 yrs. the other, as jimmy said, would be the manipulation, or use, of space itself. They are proposing the use of black holes, to create wormholes in space, and the ship would just ride it and wouldn't need to worry about much supposedly. The basic idea behind that would recreate the whole startrek thing hen they go hyper. It's kind of crazy haha. But I like your idea of cloning people for the most part. My only objection is I want to actually be there.
 

JimmyKuddo

New member
I don't see it being able to happen for quite a few lifetimes, though. There are too many politics going on here on our planet, and while some technology will be realized, some will not be here for a long time. The reasons being but not limited to:

Lack of interest.

Waiting on other tech to make it possible.

Not enough human resources with skills required.

Other things taking precedence over the project.

And so on...

Also I'm interested in finding more about this 44 year method of traveling to the nearest star after the Sun. Any references are appreciated.
 

JimmyKuddo

New member
Oh look, a worm hole.

_710812_worm_hole_inf3_300.gif


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole

BUMP!!!
 

XGC HyPeR

New member
Space travel to other planets is highly doubtable in my time BUT i think a new kind of fuel will be found in my life time and that could kick it off!
 

CSTX Roid Rage

New member
It's quite interesting the new and exciting things we learn everyday. I know we don't have means of traveling there quite yet... But someday we will. You never know what kind of "species" will be there. There could be a planet of extravagantly enormous arachnids! If there was such a planet that was exactly like our species.. You never know what level of intellect they would be on. If they were higher... you would assume they would have tried to make contact with us.

Keep on dreaming ;)
 
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