Fifty new exoplanets discovered

[Gulli]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14890143

Astronomers using a telescope in Chile have discovered 50 previously unknown exoplanets. The bumper haul of new worlds includes 16 "super-Earths" - planets with a greater mass than our own, but below those of gas giants such as Jupiter.

One of the worlds, called HD 85512 b, is estimated to be only 3.6 times the mass of the Earth.

It is located at the edge of the habitable zone - the narrow strip around a star where liquid water can be present on the surface of a planet. Liquid water is considered essential for the existence of life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_85512_b

 

[wanamingo]

3.6 X the mass of Earth would mean 3.6 times the gravity? Correct me If Im wrong.

If I weigh 175 here I would weigh 630 Lbs. Seems like an uncomfortable / unsustainable weight.

 

[Gulli]

3.6 X the mass of Earth would mean 3.6 times the gravity? Correct me If Im wrong.

If I weigh 175 here I would weigh 630 Lbs. Seems like an uncomfortable / unsustainable weight.

It depends on the density of the planet. If the planet has the same density as Earth (which is not certain but likely) then its gravitational force at the surface will be 1,53 times stronger than that on Earth, humans would certainly notice the difference but it's nothing that evolution can't overcome and aquatic animals won't notice any difference at all. It also depends on the speed of rotation but this effect is negligible (on Earth rotation gives only a 0.03N difference at the equator, while the force of gravity is 9.81N.)

I think there won't be large flying animals on this planet but pretty much everything else we have on Earth could evolve there as well. It's nice fantasizing about what life would look like there, though it may just as well be a lifeless rock.

645 exoplanets have been discovered so far, the first was only discovered as recently as 1995.

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog.php

 

[Reynod]

Gravity would be about 1.4 to 1.5 times that on Earth.

If your a porker it would be tough going ... your heart would give out pretty quick I'd imagine.

It would be a good prison or fitness camp.

I'd send my mother in law.

 

[mrface]

I was reading about this today, definitely cool that there is a possibility of life sustaining worlds out there.

 

[mrface]

Exactly, and Thats what is exciting, the possibility.

 

[Reynod]

I have laid claim to one of these planets and plan to go there soon.

Unfortunately I need some more timestretched electrons (found in gold ) for the lattice I am constructing for my tesseract.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18601398

Once I get there I am naming the planet "Tom".

Boarding passes for visitors will be available subject to validated overclocking results.

crashman will be my gatekeeper.

 

[collinfacks]

Such discoveries as these are interesting and all but with the distance they have from us, could this knowledge be of any real use to us?

 

[mrface]

Such discoveries as these are interesting and all but with the distance they have from us, could this knowledge be of any real use to us?

Sure it can. Getting people to devote time to think about faster space travel is how the innovation will happen.

[/IE, see how the railroad revolutionized, and before that domesticating horses and the wheel for carts...]

 

[mrface]

Grav. Force is:

(G*m1*m2)/r^2

 

[Reynod]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_law_of_universal_gravitation


In general relativity, the gravitational force is a fictitious force due to the curvature of spacetime, because the gravitational acceleration of a body in free fall is due to its world line being a geodesic of spacetime.

 

[mrface]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_law_of_universal_gravitation


In general relativity, the gravitational force is a fictitious force due to the curvature of spacetime, because the gravitational acceleration of a body in free fall is due to its world line being a geodesic of spacetime.

Thats why anytime you use it on a macro scale, you have to have direct coorelation with the theory of relativity.

 

[Reynod]

indoubidoubly doubly so mrface.

May I interest you in some string ???

 

[mrface]

[/takes string and produces a theory]

;P