Super-cool astronomy news

[annathepiper]

Some very cool news coming across the Web tonight about the latest extrasolar planetary discovery: the most Earth-like planet yet, which may well have favorable conditions for water. I do stress the presence of potential conditions favoring water and life, here, which is important to keep in mind--but still. That this is now on the radar makes me just generally Happy. I am delighted to live in an age where we are actually discovering other planets that could even possibly support life.

And of course the first words out of the mouth of my beloved solarbird regarding this discovery were "Class M"! Yea, we are truly a house of geeks. ^_^

BBC: New 'super-Earth' found in space

CNN: Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet

Seattle Times (via AP Wire): Potentially habitable planet found

More here and here!

Comments

[boxer-ferret.livejournal.com]

They better start making progress on those warp drives or figure out how to fold space so we can make a visit. *g*

[annathepiper]

Or at the very least, some generation ships or cryogenic systems to keep crews in stasis or something! ;)

Though right now I'll settle for better tech to observe the planet directly, which we apparently can't properly do right now since the glare of the star is in the way. It'd be nice to figure out whether all these lovely potential possibilities actually have hard data behind them!

[otoselkie.livejournal.com]

And at the rate we're going, we'll probably need it soon :P.

That aside, this is really, really nifty news.

[annathepiper]

Yeah really, Stephen Hawking wasn't kidding when he said not too long ago that we'll have to expand out into space if we're going to survive.

But yeah, indeed, I'm grooving hardcore on this, and the brain's already imagining scenarios about how we'd handle going to a planet that's 20.5 light years away. :D

[serenalita.livejournal.com]

I heard it on the radio, they even called it an M Class planet! So exciting. Of course, it is 20.4 light years away, so at our current technological capacity we won't be getting there any time soon! Still, it's out there!

[annathepiper]

solarbird says that "Class M" is actually a real designation, not just something that got made up for Star Trek--which I didn't know! And which is cool. I shall have to look this up and see what sorts of other actual designations there are.

Indeed, we won't be getting there any time soon, but it's very neat to imagine that we might get some probes over yonder in the next fifty years or so, and maybe our grandkids or great-grandkids will start launching the first extrasolar exploration missions, and damn I just squee thinking about it. :D

[lickingtoad.livejournal.com]

I wonder if 'Class M' is so because of Star Trek?

[annathepiper]

Hrmm, looking it up on Wikipedia, I see that it is actually a classification for stars. However, it is apparently the most common group of stars! So it's got that in common with the Trek designation. ;)

Apparently though this designation scheme came first.