Solar Systems Like Ours

Scientists find two gas giants orbiting a star, and with it up the chances of our discovering another Earth

By Matt Ransford Posted 04.14.2008 at 11:34 am 11 Comments

Planet Earth Are there others out there? NASA Glenn Research Center (NASA-GRC)

Less than fifteen years ago, the concept of an extrasolar planet orbiting a star much like our own was only a theory. Since that time, we've discovered nearly 300 extrasolar planets in all, but have consistently failed to find systems which orbit around stars resembling the sun. Today, the BBC is reporting on a find by astronomers from St. Andrews University of two gas giants on par with Saturn and Jupiter in orbit around a star half the size of our sun. While the finding is not a direct link to a system similar to ours, it does present an increased likelihood that our system is not unique.

While gas giants in tight orbits have been the focus of most astronomers' searches due to their relative ease of detection, the technology for detecting smaller planets in more distant orbits is rapidly improving. The planets so far uncovered have all been too close to their star or too gaseous to support life as we know it.

But as the technique for discovery—called micro-lensing, because of the way it looks for bent and magnified light from planetary gravitational fields—becomes more precise, terrestrial planets literally come into focus. We are so far able to detect planets below Earth's mass and have found gaseous giants in the so-called habitable zone (the distance from a star analogous to Earth's distance from the sun) so it is only a matter of time before we uncover a system in the mold of our own.

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11 Comments

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shadowcent

04/14/08 at 2:43 pm

I hope wrer not alone, it would be awesome to meet extrasolar life forms.

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pakipatriot

04/14/08 at 3:08 pm

Oh man this will be so cool if something turns up with these planets. What are their names. Does anyone know.

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imaduck

04/14/08 at 9:34 pm

The downside to this method, however, is that it does not tell us anything about the atmosphere's of these planets. Eclipsing methods can enlighten us to this.

Still, it's a very neat way to discover new exosolar planets.

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Matt Ransford

04/14/08 at 9:40 pm

Also keep in mind that these systems are on the magnitude of thousands of light years away, which makes contact through any means known to us highly unlikely. For example, if the system in the article were to harbor intelligent life, they would have had to have sent out radio signals toward Earth 5,000 years ago in order for us to hear them today. Our hypothetical reply would then reach them in another 5,000 years...

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TheRealWazzar

from Oxenford, QLD

04/15/08 at 7:54 am

5000 years. That's pretty short.

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457r0n0mym0ns73r

from Texa City, Texas

04/15/08 at 8:55 pm

it would be awesome to see what extrasolar organisms are in andromeda, our nearest galaxy. only 2000 light years away though!!!

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Bluelaser

04/16/08 at 1:58 pm

Some one needs to get some Ansible working.

But it is true that communication with another intelligent species is, probably never going to happen due to the space between us.

-Word.of.Warcraft

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jonathan_stephe...

04/18/08 at 7:17 pm

The speed of light will be proven to be not a real barrier eventually. In the initial creation of the universe it expanded from a singularity to half it's present size in 1 second, vastly exceeding the speed of light, of course there were as many as 11 dimensions and no matter. It will take finding a way to change the present laws of physics, as they are understood, something that may start to happen at CERN starting this summer, to allow greater than light speed travel. I'd say from 50 to 100 years until this happens!

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yasly

04/20/08 at 2:01 pm

i think it would be so cool to meet an alien!

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Stefan Guelev

from Austell, GA

04/20/08 at 8:53 pm

Well guys all i can say is the probabily of there to be alien life is highly likely. Either from the religious or scientific points we cannot be the only once because that would otherwise be just plain stupid.....We are the most intellectual beings on THIS planet, why would you think it's only you in this infinte space??? Area 51 probably has some intresting facts about aliens, however we, the public, may never know what really is going on there. There are alot of scientific factors that curently stop us from actually communicating with other solar systems. As stated above one of them is the speed at which we travel. We are SLOW, extreamly SLOW (compared to the forces in the universe). To ever have a chance of exporing its vast space we will have to travel fast or even faster then light it self. The fastest known object in the univers today. I assure you that if we continue to progress IF we do not blow our selfs up before that, we will be able to obtain such speeds. I mean look at 100 or so years ago. People said it was impossible to break the sound barrier, yet today we do so some 2 to even 20 times over! The fastest man made object to travel was a little unmanned satellite, and it traveled with speeds of up to 180,000mph! Yet still nothing compare to the speed of light's some 630 million mph. THE FUTURE IS WILD, lets all just take is along as it comes in one big BLAZING fast ride to come.

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imaduck

04/26/08 at 10:19 pm

RE: Jonathan
Actually, the seemingly faster-than-light travel at the start of the universe had to do with the expansion of space, not the number of dimensions we have. Relativity says that an object with mass will require infinite energy to move through space at the speed of light. It says nothing, however, as to what the limit is on how fast space can expand. In fact, right now there are (supposedly) many stars and galaxies that are being expanded away from us at faster than the speed of light. Unfortunately, their light will never reach us, so we will never see them, but we can view stars precluding this barrier.

Ultimately, however, no one has come up with any feasible way to harness this, and presently we seem to be bound by v < c.