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STSF Jami

Like we didnt already know
There's Something Out There

Earth-sized planets in habitable zones are more common than previously thought

 

By Anne Danahy

March 12, 2013

 

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The number of potentially habitable planets is greater than previously thought, according to a new analysis by a Penn State researcher, and some of those planets are likely lurking around nearby stars.

"We now estimate that if we were to look at 10 of the nearest small stars we would find about four potentially habitable planets, give or take," said Ravi Kopparapu, a post-doctoral researcher in geosciences. "That is a conservative estimate," he added. "There could be more."

Kopparapu detailed his findings in a paper accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. In it, he recalculated the commonness of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of low-mass stars, also known as cool stars or M-dwarfs.

 

Scientists focus on M-dwarfs for several reasons, he explained. The orbit of planets around M-dwarfs is very short, which allows scientists to gather data on a greater number of orbits in a shorter period of time than can be gathered on Sun-like stars, which have larger habitable zones. M-dwarfs are also more common than stars like the Earth's Sun, which means more of them can be observed.

 

According to his findings, "The average distance to the nearest potentially habitable planet is about seven light years. That is about half the distance of previous estimates," Kopparapu said. "There are about eight cool stars within 10 light-years, so conservatively, we should expect to find about three Earth-size planets in the habitable zones."

 

The work follows up on a recent study by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics which analyzed 3,987 M-dwarf stars to calculate the number of Earth-sized planet candidates in cool stars' habitable zones—a region around a star where rocky planets are capable of sustaining liquid water and therefore life. That study used habitable zone limits calculated in 1993 by Jim Kasting, now an Evan Pugh Professor in Penn State's Department of Geosciences. Kopparapu noticed that its findings, based on data from NASA's Kepler satellite, didn't reflect the most recent estimates for determining whether planets fall within a habitable zone.

These newer estimates are based on an updated model developed by Kopparapu and collaborators, using information on water and carbon dioxide absorption that was not available in 1993. Kopparapu applied those findings to the Harvard team's study, using the same calculation method, and found that there are additional planets in the newly determined habitable zones.

 

"I used our new habitable zone calculations and found that there are nearly three times as many Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones around these low mass stars as in previous estimates," Kopparapu said. "This means Earth-sized planets are more common than we thought, and that is a good sign for detecting extraterrestrial life."

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I like this. However, having just watched Battleship for the first time the other day makes me think that perhaps we DO wanna wait until they come and find us. Putting out a beacon saying 'Come And Get It!' might not be the smartest thing, eh? There have been many studies conducted concerning higher lifeforms. Take our dinosaurs, for instance, who happened to rule this world for a heck of a long time. Had they developed higher brain functions (which I believe they were in the process of doing), they would still be dominating our world and I hardly think they would be docile when in came to interplanetary relations. The drive to leave your home world might be that there is just no more food left and you need to find it elsewhere to survive. There is nothing that says that dominating species have to wage war on itself like we do. What if this species dominates within a cooperation of survival of the herd. The higher brain functions would demand carnivorous appetites and so they would raise and consume lifeforms with lower brain function. WE may be that lower lifeform.

 

okay, I'll shut up... :)

 

 

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The dinosaurs may indeed have been developing higher brain functions. However, that means nothing without the anatomy to use it. You need opposible thumbs to make and use tools (you also need a reason to use tools), if you are staying in one location you need to be small enough to farm, your digestive system must accomodate meat and plants so you aren't dependent on a single food source, and if you are trying to start a fire (again, you need a reason for fire) it helps to not be completely covered in hair. That's why our apelike ancestors didn't mess with fire until we were showing some skin.

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Birds are the most advanced dinosaurs

and they aren't too bright. Dinosaurs

were also declining in diversity and in

actual numbers LONG before their extinction.

 

BUT ... dinosaurs ruled the earth for 250

million years - that's a significant slice

of the history of life. While Water Worlds

like our own may be common in the universe,

I would not be surprised if the great majority

of it, perhaps even all, frankly, is animal.

 

Human Beings were lucky to have made it on the

scene at all and were the only one of millions

of species to become self-aware and develop

technology. Technology it's happy to use against

itself and the rest of life, as we know it. I do not

supsect there's much intelligence in the universe.

Edited by #one

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