Galaxy Has Billions of "Earths" Says Scientists

[Bullet1987]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891132.stm">BBC

There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.

Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science said many of these worlds could be inhabited by simple lifeforms.

He was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.

So far, telescopes have been able to detect just over 300 planets outside our Solar System.

Very few of these would be capable of supporting life, however. Most are gas giants like our Jupiter, and many orbit so close to their parent stars that any microbes would have to survive roasting temperatures.

But, based on the limited numbers of planets found so far, Dr Boss has estimated that each Sun-like star has on average one "Earth-like" planet.

This simple calculation means there would be huge numbers capable of supporting life.

"Not only are they probably habitable but they probably are also going to be inhabited," Dr Boss told BBC News. "But I think that most likely the nearby 'Earths' are going to be inhabited with things which are perhaps more common to what Earth was like three or four billion years ago." That means bacterial lifeforms.

Dr Boss estimates that Nasa's Kepler mission, due for launch in March, should begin finding some of these Earth-like planets within the next few years.

Recent work at Edinburgh University tried to quantify how many intelligent civilisations might be out there. The research suggested there could be thousands of them.

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I'm posting this in the Presidential forum because I really want to know what Obama will do about this. This has been a secret subject of mine...a little hobby, for a few years now. The Clintons were very much space enthusiasts. Since Obama is so big on transparency, will he open the classified NASA books? Let us see what else they know that they're not telling anyone. This article comes very close to saying "aliens" may exist. Actually scientists have come very close to saying it for years now. I remember when they didn't even want to suggest that there were other Earth-like planets. But then they said there MAY be Earth-like planets...but not that many. Because obviously if there are Earth-like planets, then there COULD be intelligent life. Now that's changed and they are saying there are billions of Earth-like planets, and they likely support life (in some way or form). Every few years they're inching closer and closer to saying it. I still wonder why the media likes to paint UFO believers as kooks and nuts. If there are billions of Earth-like planets...the probability that a few of them support intelligent life is actually not that unlikely. If so, who's to say they're all on the same technological level as we are? They could be much more advanced and able to travel quickly to other planets like ours.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Aarh. Teh Stupid, still burning.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Billyuns upon billyuns...

...is, I believe, the conventional manner of expressing the count. :silly:

[endarkenment]

3. the force is strong with this one

[Bullet1987]

4. LOL

[vaberella]

12. Now that was brilliant. n/t

[leftofthedial]

5. It would be comforting to find intelligent life somewhere in our galaxy.

Lord knows it's in short supply on this planet.

[Occam Bandage]

26. There doesn't seem to be much of an evolutionary pressure towards intelligence,

considering that the Earth had to undergo plenty of scrap-everything-and-start-over mass extinction events, yet few enough that each evolutionary flourishing could come into its own. Had there not been the most recent extinction event, it's likely that supermassive reptilians would still dominate Earth.

What I consider to be the beyond-no-return point of intelligence, creative language, has only been developed once in the history of the Earth, by one branch of overgrown squirrels. Heck, many of the prerequisites, like warm-bloodedness, may well have only developed once.

When you look at things that have developed frequently and independently, such as wings, teeth, and carnivorism, I would say that yes, it is somewhat likely we would find that on other planets, though I'd place no bets on the frequency life evolves beyond the bacterial stage. As for complex intelligent societies? I think that suggesting those are common is being a bit egotistical; our way of doing things seems far less stable than previous dominant species have managed, and stability wins in evolutionary history.

[wyldwolf]

6. You've missed something

Democrats are from Krypton. Republicans from the Borg home world.

[damonm]

10. WRONG!

Republicans are Ferengi.

[Starry Messenger]

7. What if life exists on other planets...

and they all turn out to be Republicans? What will we do then??

:hide:

[RC]

17. Nothing. Then they would never achieve space travail.

[Starry Messenger]

18. :) "Travail" is all they've achieved so far...

I think you meant "travel".

[RC]

27. Humph... And I used the spell check too.

[roguevalley]

8. I love this stuff. :)

[Double T]

9. If other planets have 'intelligent civilizations' like our planet..........

they're in DS too!

[vaberella]

11. Already a thread on this. Very Serenity/Firefly like...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3740699

I'm telling you these guys want to move to those planets to propose such an idea. Either their watching Serenity/Firefly or their watching Stargate Atlantis.... It's funny they ran with the idea of simple life forms when Earth NEVER had simple life forms, not really anyway. And those life forms evolved into us. It would be funny if there are other humans on those so many other "Earth-like" planets.

[damonm]

13. Old, OLD news...

RAND Corp., back in the early '60s stated a mathematical probablity of about 3 QUINTILLION Earth-type planets in this galaxy alone - and probably 4 trillion galaxies similar to ours.

If we're alone, I'd be astonished.

[Bill McBlueState]

21. Do you think that

perhaps new, relevant data have been acquired since the early '60s? I'm sure the RAND work was interesting, but perhaps such estimates can be put on a firmer footing after 50 years of additional research.

(BTW, there are around 300 billion stars in the galaxy, so 3 quintillion planets would mean ten million planets per star. I think your number is a little high.)

[damonm]

22. Perchance...

but the point remains - it's been well established for quite some time that there is VERY LIKELY a large number of planets in the Galaxy capable of sustaining Life As We Know It.
As to high numbers, I probably juxtaposed planets and similar galaxies - been a LONG time since I read the report.

[dascientist]

14. Sagan?

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. My research is definitive on this point: Mighty Mouse could kick Superman's ass. n/t

[MidwestTransplant]

16. BEST video on youtube speaks to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgg2tpUVbXQ

[donco6]

23. "Single most important picture ever taken by humanity" my ass!

I didn't see Jesus in it!

:sarcasm:

[MidwestTransplant]

28. Ah here ya go

[donco6]

33. Did you see the potato chip today?

He's popping up everywhere!

[MidwestTransplant]

30. Did you watch it? What did you think?

[donco6]

32. It's really good.

I remember seeing the photo itself posted on the wall of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC. It's just astonishing - the closer you look at it, the more you see, and you realize they're all GALAXIES - it just floors you.

I think all of our HS kids should see this short video.

[MidwestTransplant]

36. I agree. Just remarkable to fathom.

[LongTomH]

34. Cross-post this to the Science forum and Political Videos

nfm:yourock:

[DrDan]

19. I wonder how many are infested with republicans . . . or are they smarter than us and

took care of the problem

[quantass]

20. Nice to see that Democrats are still the Intellectually Curious Party. Cheers to you all!

:toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast::toast:

[zulchzulu]

24. Imagine all the Craig's Lists with a couple million new Earths...

I dig aliens.

[Occam Bandage]

25. Because I highly doubt any of these other earth-like planets are capable

of simply nullifying half the laws of physics to make a quick jaunt over, to say nothing of even finding us (considering that we've only sent out radio signals 100ly away, and they're likely to be indistinguishable from background radition for most of that), nor do I think they are capable of nullifying the laws of physics in order to create a cloaking device of sorts, nor do I think they would need to get up close and personal, nor do I think they would have forgotten to mask their ship to the visual spectrum, considering that they've obviously masked themselves to every other part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

[ecstatic]

29. There was an excellent episode of the Outer Limits that reminded me of Pres. Obama

and his wife. The episode is called "Trial By Fire" and it was about a new president who was faced with an alien ship approaching Earth minutes after being sworn in. He and his wife really wanted to do the right thing and reach out to the aliens, but the people around him were like neocons and insisted on trying to attack the ship with nukes. It was a really good episode, you should check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz9M3lQSgpg

[Clio the Leo]

31. Does each "earth" have it's own "Obama"?

I certainly hope so.

[LongTomH]

35. A possibility of life does not equate to "we're being visited!"

That's a big logical jump. As the late Carl Sagan stated: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof!"

By the way, I disagree with 'Occam's Bandage' about the possibility of interstellar travel. But that still doesn't equate to proof that we're being visited.