Solar System Found!

[Azrael]

Scientists have found a solar system orbiting the star 55 Cancri that resembles ours. Now here is my question, are we the only sentiant life in the universe or are there other life forms out there among the stars? If there is, do you think they believe in God or not? I know these are kinda crazy questions, but I have always loved Astronomy and have always wanted to travel the stars. Here is a link to the article,

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/06/13/new.planets/index.html

 

[Azrael]

Here's another one,

http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/04/05/new.planets/?related

11 new planets discovered; one in 'life zone'

Could the moon of a giant planet in an Earth-like orbit harbor life?

April 5, 2001
Web posted at: 11:29 a.m. EDT (1529 GMT)

By Richard Stenger
CNN

(CNN) -- An international team of astronomers this week announced the discovery of 11 distant planets, pushing the number of known planets outside the solar system to 63.

The latest finds include a planet that orbits twice as fast as a sibling planet, a planet with the most elongated orbit detected so far, and a planet around a sun-like star in an Earth-like orbit.

The last is located in a so-called "habitable zone," where terrestrial temperatures are possible. In such an orbit, the conditions would be ideal for the presence of liquid water, a necessary ingredient for known life.

But like all extra-solar planets that have been discovered, the specimen is a giant similar in size to Jupiter or even larger.

"It may be orbited by one or more moons on which a more bio-friendly environment has evolved," the European Southern Observatory said in a statement Wednesday.

"The presence of natural satellites around giant extra-solar planets is not a far-fetched idea. Just look at our solar system," the statement said. The giant planets Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune all have multiple moons, some of which are thought to harbor saltwater oceans.

One of the new planets was the second detected in a system with three stars. Any observer standing on the planet would get plenty of light, at times seeing three suns in the sky, astronomers said.

Besides the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile, the Haute-Provence Observatory in France and the Keck telescopes in Hawaii took part in the planetary hunt.

The first of the so-called "exoplanets" were observed only six years go, using ground-based telescopes to measure the wobble such bodies produce as they orbit their host stars. None of the new planets has been observed directly.

Astronomers anticipate the discovery of much smaller planets, perhaps terrestrial-sized ones, when more powerful observatories and satellites expand the search within the decade.

 

[OldBadfish]

From my point of view, life on other planets still would have to be spawned by a creator. Since we do not know everything about God it is possible God has other projects going on and has chosen not to divulge that information to earthlings.

So even from my Christian POV, yes there could be life on other planets, and it is exciting when you hear about similar Solar Systems.

 

[RufusAtticus]

It's my opinion that it's fruitless to speculate how people religious or otherwise will react if/when we encounter alien life.

 

[EspressoDuck]

That's really neat! Now in my personal, admittingly uneducated opinion,( ) I think that there could be other habitable or habited planets out there. There is only one God, but maybe he does have more than one planet like Earth. *Makes list of questions to ask God when she gets to Heaven*

 

[npetreley]

I would have written the article a bit differently. For example, one could quite easily extend the logic here...

The last is located in a so-called "habitable zone," where terrestrial temperatures are possible. In such an orbit, the conditions would be ideal for the presence of liquid water, a necessary ingredient for known life.

But like all extra-solar planets that have been discovered, the specimen is a giant similar in size to Jupiter or even larger.

"It may be orbited by one or more moons on which a more bio-friendly environment has evolved," the European Southern Observatory said in a statement Wednesday.

...add...

But like all known moons, it's probably dead as a doorknob.

"One of the moons may have a frozen layer with water underneath that is hospitable for life," the European Southern Observatory said in a statement Wednesday.

But it's just as likely that the radiation from the gas giant planet prevents life from surviving on any of the moons.

"One of the moons may have a very thick coating of lead on top of the frozen layer underneath which there is water that holds life," the European Southern Observatory said in a statement Wednesday.

And so on...

 

[Azrael]

I find this all very exciting. The discoveries of possible pockets of water on Mars, plus the discoveries about Europa, we live in interesting times. In my eyes, nothing is more glorious or beautifull then looking up at the stars and getting a glimpse of the beginnings of something great!

 

[Thunderchild]

As pointed out, the possibility of life on other planets is a matter of unprovable (given current techniques) speculation. Nice to think about perhaps, but I don't see it having any measurable impact on my quality of life in the foreseeable future.

 

[Seifer]

Just remember, those 'life possible zones' are assuming they'll be human like (life requirements).



Meaning, even on the planets that they say arent 'life possible', there could be other animals living there, like fish, reptiles, or even germs and other micro-organisms.

 

[npetreley]

Originally posted by Seifer

Meaning, even on the planets that they say arent 'life possible', there could be other animals living there, like fish, reptiles, or even germs and other micro-organisms.

Cool. I hope there's a bunyip somewhere.

 

[LewisWildermuth]

Originally posted by npetreley


Cool. I hope there's a bunyip somewhere.

Or maybe we'll find the famous biblical cud chewing rabbit Nick!