Earth-size planet found with rocky core like ours
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists have found a planet way out in the cosmos that's close in size and content to Earth — an astronomical first.
But hold off on the travel plans. This rocky world is so close to its sun that it's at least 2,000 degrees hotter than here, almost certainly too hot for life.
Astrophysicists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature that the exoplanet Kepler-78b appears to be made of rock and iron just like Earth. They measured the planet's mass to determine its density and content. It's actually a little bigger than Earth and nearly double its mass, or weight.
Kepler-78b is located in the Cygnus constellation hundreds of light-years away. Incredibly, it orbits its sun every 8½ hours, a mystery to astronomers who doubt it could have formed or moved that close to a star. They agree the planet will be sucked up by the sun in a few billion years, so its time remaining, astronomically speaking, is short.
More than 1,000 exoplanets — worlds outside our solar system — have been confirmed so far.
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, used to discover Kepler-78b, has identified 3,500 more potential candidates. The telescope lost its precise pointing ability earlier this year, and NASA has given up trying to fix it.
Scientific teams in the United States and Switzerland used ground observatories to measure Kepler-78b.
But hold off on the travel plans. This rocky world is so close to its sun that it's at least 2,000 degrees hotter than here, almost certainly too hot for life.
Astrophysicists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature that the exoplanet Kepler-78b appears to be made of rock and iron just like Earth. They measured the planet's mass to determine its density and content. It's actually a little bigger than Earth and nearly double its mass, or weight.
Kepler-78b is located in the Cygnus constellation hundreds of light-years away. Incredibly, it orbits its sun every 8½ hours, a mystery to astronomers who doubt it could have formed or moved that close to a star. They agree the planet will be sucked up by the sun in a few billion years, so its time remaining, astronomically speaking, is short.
More than 1,000 exoplanets — worlds outside our solar system — have been confirmed so far.
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, used to discover Kepler-78b, has identified 3,500 more potential candidates. The telescope lost its precise pointing ability earlier this year, and NASA has given up trying to fix it.
Scientific teams in the United States and Switzerland used ground observatories to measure Kepler-78b.
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It's only a matter of time till we find other lifeforms..................
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I wonder if Adam and Eve visited there too ? -
Drug money
Itll buy u what u wanttttttt -
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A good find. They keep finding planets that orbit close to their parent star, I think those are the easiest to find.
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What blows my mind is that we know more about what's in space but know less than what's deep down in our oceans.
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I love hearing news like this, sadly, until we develop a better way of galactic travel, these galactic bodies are unreachable, I mean even with today's technology Mars is 8 months away, and that's in our backyard. I do wish we could somehow send a probe in the direction of Gliese 581G, it's suppose to be the most Earth like planet and lies in it's star's habitable zone.
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thats cool and all but they couldnt come up with a better name than kepler 78b? sounds like some futurama ? ..
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What blows my mind is that we know more about what's in space but know less than what's deep down in our oceans.
kind of reminds u of religion when u think about it..
people jus rather look up then within i guess!?
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That's where people go when they are high on Molly's
Molly's world -
I honestly think we are the only life forms in the entire universe.
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MF_Doomerville wrote: »I honestly think we are the only life forms in the entire universe.
You stupid as hell -
MF_Doomerville wrote: »I honestly think we are the only life forms in the entire universe.
As far as intelligent material beings go, Yes.
But there are supernatural spiritual life forms that exists in the universe as well. We know them as angels. Here goes one that ? allowed to materialize for the world to see in Jersualem over the temple mount a few years ago.
http://youtu.be/QDJXg8o8CMQ
I'm not sure if it is an angel or a demon. But the UFO is definately a spiritual being. -
Lord Marshal wrote: »I love hearing news like this, sadly, until we develop a better way of galactic travel, these galactic bodies are unreachable, I mean even with today's technology Mars is 8 months away, and that's in our backyard. I do wish we could somehow send a probe in the direction of Gliese 581G, it's suppose to be the most Earth like planet and lies in it's star's habitable zone.
Theoretically, we can travel through wormholes. We just haven't figured out how to open them up, or create them. But we're probably headed in that direction, if we don't ? ourselves off first. -
Lord Marshal wrote: »I love hearing news like this, sadly, until we develop a better way of galactic travel, these galactic bodies are unreachable, I mean even with today's technology Mars is 8 months away, and that's in our backyard. I do wish we could somehow send a probe in the direction of Gliese 581G, it's suppose to be the most Earth like planet and lies in it's star's habitable zone.
Theoretically, we can travel through wormholes. We just haven't figured out how to open them up, or create them. But we're probably headed in that direction, if we don't ? ourselves off first.
Sounds like a bunch of ? to me -
DoUwant2go2Heaven? wrote: »MF_Doomerville wrote: »I honestly think we are the only life forms in the entire universe.
As far as intelligent material beings go, Yes.
But there are supernatural spiritual life forms that exists in the universe as well. We know them as angels. Here goes one that ? allowed to materialize for the world to see in Jersualem over the temple mount a few years ago.http://youtu.be/QDJXg8o8CMQ
I'm not sure if it is an angel or a demon. But the UFO is definately a spiritual being.
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Truth hurts, huh?
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Turfaholic wrote: »MF_Doomerville wrote: »I honestly think we are the only life forms in the entire universe.
You stupid as hell
Prove me wrong. I'll wait... -
The arrogance of humanity of thinking we are the only sentient lifeforms in this universe. There are more stars than there are humans.
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as big (neverending) as the universe is...u gotta be dumb as ? to think we are the ONLY LIFEFORMS out here. and also the SMARTEST lifeforms out here. smh
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faster than light travel is impossible and the amount of energy it would take to form a stable wormhole is staggering the only way humanity will be traveling in space will be by warp drive which is warping the space in front and behind a vessel or by generation ship.
i think there are aliens and if they are here they must either use warp drive or if such a dimension like subspace exists then that is another possibility.
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Using a warp drive is probably about 30 years from now, we can form one, but controlling the energy is the problem and we don't know how to not destroy a planet using it.
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Lord Marshal wrote: »I love hearing news like this, sadly, until we develop a better way of galactic travel, these galactic bodies are unreachable, I mean even with today's technology Mars is 8 months away, and that's in our backyard. I do wish we could somehow send a probe in the direction of Gliese 581G, it's suppose to be the most Earth like planet and lies in it's star's habitable zone.
Theoretically, we can travel through wormholes. We just haven't figured out how to open them up, or create them. But we're probably headed in that direction, if we don't ? ourselves off first.
Sounds like a bunch of ? to me
that what they said about black holes. then it was confirmed that they existed after having described them theoretically.
