See, THIS is where we should Doubt the Scientists, NOT on global warming!

[Keith Bee]

Scientists may be just steps from discovering the first habitable planet beyond our own.

Gliese 581d, a planet orbiting the red-dwarf star Gliese, may be the first real candidate for human expansion. That is, if it didn't take 3,000 lifetimes to get there, according to Science Daily.

581d is the third candidate for becoming the first hospitable exoplanet from the Gliese system, but the previous two candidates have both been ruled out. Gliese 581e was ruled too cold, and 581g turned out to be entirely nonexistent.

In order to determine that this planet was actually a viable candidate, the scientists behind the new report used a new computer model, which uses methods similar to those used to measure Earth's own climate, to analyze the atmosphere of 581d.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/first-habitable-planet-2030_n_862785.html

I love astronomy. My biggest criticism of Obama is the castration of our space program. But this is nothing more than fantasy masquerading as fact. We really don't know if any planets---habitable or not---exist beyond our solar system, and I challenge anybody here to PROVE me wrong.

[liberallunatic]

1. So I shouldn't believe that they

may be steps from discovering the first habitable planet?

Um.. it's a maybe. How can I not believe it? there is nothing to believe or not believe.

Call me back when they claim to actually have discovered something.

[Taverner]

2. Relax. All they are saying is they think they have found an extrasolar planet

And it may be in the "goldilocks zone"

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but our moon is in the "goldilocks zone"

And we know how abundant life is on that planet

[Warren Stupidity]

3. "prove me wrong" is usually a losing game.

However the general consensus is that exoplanets really do exist. The kepler mission, in particular, is kind of a lot of really good data to just dismiss.

[sudopod]

4. OK

A nutshell description of the Kepler mission:

http://kepler.nasa.gov/education/resources/KeplerInBrief/

Detailed Kepler FAQ:

http://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/QuickGuide/faq/

Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia:

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog.php

Wiki article with tons of references:

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

[Drale]

5. The fact is

until we actually send an expedition out to one of these planets, we will never know if they are truly habitable or not.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. well no that isn't true

our ability to gather data on exoplanets is getting better every year, and it is not improbable that we could in the relative near future determine a rough measure of human habitability without sending a craft to one of these planets.

[ReverendDeuce]

8. And what's truly fascinating...

And what's truly fascinating is that the start is so "local"... 20 light years is a stone's throw in galactic terms.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. indeed however...

equally fascinating is the failure of SETI to detect any signs of technically advanced civilization. Perhaps a more focused search will be fruitful, otherwise the obvious conclusion is that technically advanced civs are rare and brief.

[lunatica]

7. I challenge you to prove they're wrong

Oh, and while you're at it please prove that UFOs don't exist. Cause I'm not so sure since I don't know for sure.

[Tesha]

9. Statistically, it is *INCONCEIVABLE* that exoplanets don't exist.

It's even inconceivable that "Earth-like" exoplanets don't exist.

Whether any of them are at the point of having intelligent life
might be worthy of debate, of course, especially considering
that I'm not fully convinced of intelligent life existing on the
one Earth-like planet with which we're familiar.

Tesha

[spanone]

10. are you a scientist?