Glow of Alien Planets Detected

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by Gambit Star, Mar 23, 2005.

  1. Gambit Star Universal Entity Registered Senior Member

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    Last edited: Mar 24, 2005
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  3. Lucas Registered Senior Member

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  5. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    Lucas, I take it you mean "an extra-solar planet has been directly detected by its EM radiation before", which is what your link describes. I understand that one is waiting confirmation.
    Also worth noting that the two planets detected by infra-red in gambit-star's link had been previously discovered.
     
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  7. blobrana Registered Senior Member

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    Hum,
    As a side note there is unreleased data showing that the night side of the transiting planets radiate a lot more radiation than our own giant planets would. The planets of course orbit closer, (with a surface temp. of 727 degrees C !), and that may change the planets internal dynamics, and as such they maybe very different to our Jupiter.
     
  8. jennyRater Luck B me 2nite Registered Senior Member

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    Wouldnt they be very puffed out and whispy, with cloudfs boiling up all the time? theyd be much less dense than Jupiter, on the outside at least
     
  9. esoterik_appeal H. pylori Registered Senior Member

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    next generation telescopes, i guess anything post-hubble will fall into that category, such as the james webb, and another with a huge 30-meter mirror, should be powerful enough to prove the existence of small rocky planets, not the huge seething gas giants that have been detected so far. they may even be able to give spectral analyses of their atmospheres, telling us which if any could be suitable for life.
     
  10. jennyRater Luck B me 2nite Registered Senior Member

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    thengain we dont know for sure if oxygen has to mean life, there might be other ways to form it - and life might not have to mean oxyen either.
     
  11. ShadowMaster Registered Member

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    Too true, in fact some people think that life can be started from other (sort of) similar gases. But, on our planet, life started before oxygen. It started with extremeophile prokaryotes, which were in the hottest of the hot and are now found in the coldest of the cold regions of our planet. Some of them were anaerobic, in fact most were, where when they came into contact with oxygen, they died. They were what created a sufficient amount of oxygen for life to really get started, so technically, while oxygen may not be needed for life, it sure is useful and the most efficient gas that we know of the helps life along. When life started, though, there was just enough oxygen for the entire human race as it is now to exist (and breathe) about five minutes. So although oxygen isn't needed for life, it sure is a plus. Keep in mind, though, that there are some creatures still on our planet, in the bottom of the ocean, that don't rely on it at all, and most plants don't either; they produce it, they don't consume it. (Even though this is extremely off topic I have fun talking about it.)

    More on-topic: I found the articles really interesting, although not very surprising. In a supposedly infinite cosmos, anything is possible...
     
  12. Gambit Star Universal Entity Registered Senior Member

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    Funny how life always finds a way eh ?

    The reason for posting this thread is I am starting to realise that, the more and more planets we find and can proove are there, the more I feel that our exsistance is becoming something less of a randomisation.
     
  13. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Is this another gas giant, or an Earth-like planet?
     
  14. 2inquisitive The Devil is in the details Registered Senior Member

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    These were more gas giants. However, at least one possibly 'rocky' planet has been
    detected, with a mass about 14 times Earth's mass. It is orbiting very close to its parent star. Our technology hasn't progressed to the point where we are able to detect smaller Earth-sized planets at Earth-type distances from their parent star.
    We are getting closer to being able to do so, and should be able to within a few
    years with more sensitive telescopes and instruments. A link to the possible rock
    planet's discovery, referred to as a 'Super Earth':
    http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/super_earth_040825.html
     

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