Kepler Mission |
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Kepler Mission |
 Sep 13 2011, 11:13 AM
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#931
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 The Poet Dude  Group: Moderator Posts: 5546 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60  |
Fascinating news, and a great achievement to be sure, but dear god I wish they'd stop using the term "Super Earth", or tagging the word "Earth" onto *any* of these exoplanets. I'd ban its use if I could. And labelling a planet a "Super Earth" plants in the minds of non-scientists an image of a planet that is basically just Earth 'scaled up', a planet just like Earth that's essentially just a lot larger. It's so misleading.
Almost every talk I do I get someone asking me about "the Earth like planets" that have been found, and I have to tell them that as exciting as the news is of *every* exoplanet discovery, no truly "Earth-like planets" have been found. The use of the word "Earth" should be restricted to planets that are actually, you know, *like* Earth, with *confirmed* breathable atmospheres, fluffy white clouds and water oceans. And kittens. -------------------- |
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Sep 13 2011, 11:15 AM
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#932
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Member Group: Members Posts: 286 Joined: 29-August 06 From: Columbia, MD Member No.: 1083 |
Although it's extrapolating beyond the data, I think it's a pretty safe one to say that if so many stars host super-Earths/sub-Neptunes, an even larger fraction will support smaller terrestrial planets. Fun times ahead.
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Sep 13 2011, 11:42 AM
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#933
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5546 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Absolutely!
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Sep 13 2011, 03:15 PM
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#934
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1101 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Seattle Member No.: 530 |
QUOTE (Stu @ Sep 13 2011, 06:13 AM)  Almost every talk I do I get someone asking me about "the Earth like planets" that have been found, Hey Stu, I also heard they've found water on Mars. What about that? |
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Sep 13 2011, 03:48 PM
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#935
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5546 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Congratulations. Good to know you're paying attention.
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Sep 13 2011, 08:00 PM
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#936
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 Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2605 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Yeah, finding a potential "Venus-like" or "Super-Venus" planet doesn't seem to pull in the media interest.
(Once again, Venus gets dissed.) -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Sep 13 2011, 09:19 PM
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#937
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Member Group: Members Posts: 251 Joined: 22-September 08 From: Spain Member No.: 4350 |
QUOTE (Stu @ Sep 13 2011, 01:13 PM) The use of the word "Earth" should be restricted to planets that are actually, you know, *like* Earth. Earth is an anthropocentric word, too. Properly speaking, they should be called Super Crusty-Magma Blobs. 
-------------------- "I can easily see still in my mind’s-eye the beautiful clusters of these berries as they appeared to me..., when I came upon an undiscovered bed of them... – the rich clusters drooping in the shade there and bluing all the ground" -- Thoreau
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Sep 13 2011, 09:38 PM
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#938
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 Administrator Group: Chairman Posts: 13234 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Can we save the meaningless semantic argument for another forum please.
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Sep 13 2011, 10:46 PM
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#939
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 53 Joined: 1-February 10 Member No.: 5210 |
Predictably, the Kepler team has scheduled a press conference of its own on Thursday at 2 pm EDT. Interestingly, they have invited a visual effects specialist from Industrial Light and Magic to the event.
 Stay tuned. A paper in this week's Science will follow. See: http://www.space.com/12938-nasa-kepler-pla...m-thursday.html. (Could they have found a binary star system with a planet? That would explain the ILM connection...)
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Sep 13 2011, 11:31 PM
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#940
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1101 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Seattle Member No.: 530 |
More news from the conference:
http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1109/13browndwarf/ Brown Dwarf weather... 30% brightness change in a few hours. |
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Sep 13 2011, 11:38 PM
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#941
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Administrator Group: Chairman Posts: 13234 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
A reminder about rule 1.3 - a rule this thread is rapidly approaching and likely to start leaping towards in the near future. (which is why it's been a pending admin nightmare for years)
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Sep 15 2011, 06:01 PM
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#942
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 618 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Vancouver, British Columbia Member No.: 5221 |
Conf. starting soon...
Circumbinary planet! Kepler 16B -------------------- To a body of infinite size there can be ascribed neither centre nor boundary... Thus the Earth no more than any other world is at the centre. -Giordano Bruno, 1584.
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Sep 15 2011, 06:46 PM
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#943
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1146 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
for those having access to Science, Kepler-16: A Transiting Circumbinary Planet
-------------------- I'm one of the most durable and fervent advocates of space exploration, but my take is that we could do it robotically at far less cost and far greater quantity and quality of results.
James Van Allen |
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Sep 15 2011, 07:05 PM
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#944
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2929 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
The abstract alone makes extraordinary and surprising reading, to me at least. The planet must orbit at a distance only about 3 times the binary separation. Does the full paper discuss the stability of this arrangement? Is it a very young system?
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Sep 15 2011, 07:25 PM
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#945
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1146 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
the paper say they investigated the stability of the system by integrating it over 2 million years. there are short-term variations of the parameters, but none that would lead to instability
-------------------- I'm one of the most durable and fervent advocates of space exploration, but my take is that we could do it robotically at far less cost and far greater quantity and quality of results.
James Van Allen |
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