Suddenly we're rolling in planets.

Wednesday, scientists confirmed discovery of a whopping 715 new planets orbiting stars other than our own sun, nearly doubling the number of "exoplanets" on the books. Researchers have trumpeted the discovery of large batches of unconfirmed candidate exoplanets but never before have so many genuine, verified exoplanets been reported at once.

"What we've been able to do … is strike the mother lode, get a veritable exoplanet bonanza," planetary scientist Jack Lissauer of the NASA Ames Research Center said at a news briefing.

Four of the new planets are in the habitable zone, the narrow band around a star where the temperature on a planet's surface is likely to be warm enough for liquid water. All four are about twice as big across as the Earth. Until now, most of the verified exoplanets were sized more like strapping Jupiter, which is 87,000 miles across, than like shrimpy Earth, which is not quite 8,000.

Rest of the article.

We've used the names of old Gods for planets in our solar system, I vote we name the four habitable(?) newbies after rock Gods.

Planet Page
Planet Quatro
Planet Hendrix
Planet Ozzy

hugorune wrote:
Start a poll?
OR
I believe there is a legal way to have these planets named as you see fit..... just send £50 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
& you don't have to do anything else!

Well well, turns out we're not so special after all... and Planet Earth is not Be All and End All.

I'm off



There's more planets to fuck up now....

marina wrote:
I have never for one moment thought we are.

I actually think the human species is fairly low down the cosmic food chain.

It always bemuses me when the geeks go on about looking for planets suitable for life. They only ever mean carbon based. They are only thinking in a very small bandwidth.
If these folks saw fairies they'd no doubt explain it away.

I sometimes feel I'm silicon based.

What they mean "life" is DNA, RNA and protein... from a carbon based life-form aka homo sapiens sapiens perspective.

And i am pasty based.

I have always thought that the search for alien intelligences and life on other worlds was far too limited. Carbon based life forms are all we know, but considering the size of the universe, it is entirely possible that there are creatures out there which have other, more exotic chemicals at their roots. For all we know there could be planets of sentient rocks, whose circulatory systems take eons to pump once, and whose nerve pathways are formed in the strata in their composition.

Hell, for all we know there could be void breathers out there, beings which harvest their sustenance directly from the unfiltered fury of solar flares. There is so much space out there, that to limit our research into life in the wider universe, in any way what so ever, seems a foolish errand to be set upon.

hugorune wrote:
Planet Hugo sounds pretty cool