http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-046
(image courtesy of NASA/ESA)
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8 comments:
When I first saw this article, I thought "Methane? They found this on Mars, too!" Although I find it highly unlikely that there is actually life on the planet (no solid surface except its core) due to the fact that is would take a very long tile for something to evolve wings, and to do that it would have to rest on its core. Unless it has some super-thermophiles, it isn't likely. This might greatly help scientists find life in he future, though.
It doesn't seem like the planet will have life on it based on the description the article gave. I was astounded to read "a year there last just 3 days". It's amazing how the planet getting closer to the Sun can change the year time period drastically. Also I was amazed by this fact:"The planet is estimated to be only 50 percent larger than Earth, making it the smallest planet yet found outside the solar system". :0 Comparing to other planetary systems, our is actually quite small.
Whoops. This was supposed to go in First Habitable Earthlike planet Found. I copied and pasted it into that article FWI.
Howard, the discovery is probably important because it was found on an exoplanet(just a guess Howard, just a guess). It is important for discovering what makes a perfect planet habitable for all life forms. It probably can't support life though because it's a "hot Jupiter".
@ Howard and Brandon F:
@ Howard: From the book that we did for the first reading assignment, you might remember that it mentioned the possibility of floating gas-bag creatures which are like birds, they are very light, have a hollow bone structure, which they must because they would fall and die if they didn't. But, you are right that it might take a long time for something to evolve wings, but if the life starts off at the hot core with the superthermophiles, again like you said, it could eventually evolve to be a gas-bag creature.
@ Brandon F: Even if it is a "hot jupiter", it is definitely important because even if we know we have found something even remotely related to some sign of life, we can hope to look for more signs to see if life evolves.
@ me: I just thought that the astronomers should have some "interstellar time units", not just our days and our years, but maybe something that goes with all the planets. It might be very hard to find, but I think it is possible.
I thought it was cool that they found organic molecules on a planet outside our solar system. What I didn't realize was- what's so special! Isn't everything made up of molecules? Anyways, finding water is a big thing. I was surprised that it didn't turn into water vapor in a 1700 degrees F. environment! By the way Brandon- the year there is 2 days, not 3. It isn't surprising that a year is so short because a year is exactly how long it takes to make one complete orbit around the mother star. So, obviously, the closer it gets, the shorter the years are because it takes less time to make one orbit. That's why Mercury and Venus have such short years.
I thought that it was exciting at first when they said that they had found both water and methane on the planet, but when they said that the only solid surface is the core of the planet and that it was hot enough to melt silver I started to think that the discovery wasn't so amazing. I think that before they publish a find they should better understand what they are discovering.
This is a huge discovery. Although this planet might not be able to sustain life as we know it, it could still contain some kind of life. If you think about it, it's impossible that Earth is the only planet which contains life in our galaxy, so there might already be life in that planet, but we just can't detect it.
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