Milky Way Estimate: 50 Billion Exoplanets

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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The announcement was made on Saturday in Washington, by Kepler science chief William Borucki. He didn’t actually count the dots obviously, but rather used extrapolations of work completed, arriving at the 50 Billion number. The possibility of habitable planets within our own galaxy is now estimated at 500 Million. It is looking more likely that we aren’t the only fish in the pond.
 
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Well they've been saying this forever of course.. but now recently every news site is claiming we have tons of planets in the Milky Way now.

But I've yet to see a single picture, or any non-text proof of this.... so its really a waste of time every time I've check it out. We spend billions, upon billions... and nothing yet.

I wonder why they just don't make a bunch of little, cheap camera rockets and send them in every direction from our planet.... how hard is that? You'd surely find out tons of information...
 
Well they've been saying this forever of course.. but now recently every news site is claiming we have tons of planets in the Milky Way now.

But I've yet to see a single picture, or any non-text proof of this.... so its really a waste of time every time I've check it out. We spend billions, upon billions... and nothing yet.

I wonder why they just don't make a bunch of little, cheap camera rockets and send them in every direction from our planet.... how hard is that? You'd surely find out tons of information...

........I hope this whole post was sarcasm.
 
I wonder why they just don't make a bunch of little, cheap camera rockets and send them in every direction from our planet.... how hard is that? You'd surely find out tons of information...

Have you heard of the voyager 1? It was launched in 1977, its currently 11 billion miles from earth, its travelling at 38,000 mph, it'll take 74,000 years before it reaches our nearest star proxima centauri.
 
The whole issue is stupid. All you had to do is look at jupiter in the 17th century and tell that satellites are the natural way of things. Now its all like "oh, a planet!" Sure.
 
Well they've been saying this forever of course.. but now recently every news site is claiming we have tons of planets in the Milky Way now.

But I've yet to see a single picture, or any non-text proof of this.... so its really a waste of time every time I've check it out. We spend billions, upon billions... and nothing yet.

I wonder why they just don't make a bunch of little, cheap camera rockets and send them in every direction from our planet.... how hard is that? You'd surely find out tons of information...
I agree with the above... I hope this is all one big joke post.

As far as pictures, if you haven't seen one, you haven't looked. I only have to go as far as my wikipedia search bar to find some...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/HR_8799_planetary_system_photo.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:444226main_exoplanet20100414-a-full.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fomalhaut_with_Disk_Ring_and_extrasolar_planet_b.jpg

If you're looking for a picture like we have of Mars... get ready to wait a while.
 
Now the problem is actually getting to these places within a human lifetime, all the while mitigating the hazards and detriments of space (radiation, gamma rays, micro-meteorites, etc.) on the human body.
 
Well they've been saying this forever of course.. but now recently every news site is claiming we have tons of planets in the Milky Way now.

But I've yet to see a single picture, or any non-text proof of this.... so its really a waste of time every time I've check it out. We spend billions, upon billions... and nothing yet.

I wonder why they just don't make a bunch of little, cheap camera rockets and send them in every direction from our planet.... how hard is that? You'd surely find out tons of information...

hurr-durr-derp-face-what-dun-gone-and-happened-dun-did.jpg
 
The announcement was made on Saturday in Washington, by Kepler science chief William Borucki. He didn’t actually count the dots obviously, but rather used extrapolations of work completed, arriving at the 50 Billion number. The possibility of habitable planets within our own galaxy is now estimated at 500 Million. It is looking more likely that we aren’t the only fish in the pond.

given the data from studies discussed, briefly, here, I think it's likely there's some form of life on many planets, including Mars. However, in our life time, I doubt we'll find anything that indicates intelligent life exists elsewhere. However, the odds of us being the only planet with intelligent life seems very unlikely.
 
Have you heard of the voyager 1? It was launched in 1977, its currently 11 billion miles from earth, its travelling at 38,000 mph, it'll take 74,000 years before it reaches our nearest star proxima centauri.

Ahh, see something like that.

And yes, my post was so sarcasm... enough that none of your spacegeeks could even post a legit reply.... :rolleyes:

As far as pictures, if you haven't seen one, you haven't looked. I only have to go as far as my wikipedia search bar to find some...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...stem_photo.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:44...414-a-full.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fo...r_planet_b.jpg

That's an exoplanet it says, which is OUTSIDE the milky way.... thanks for posting useles info with your 5 seconds of searchbar glory :D
 
That's an exoplanet it says, which is OUTSIDE the milky way.... thanks for posting useles info with your 5 seconds of searchbar glory :D

Oh good lord please just stop.

An exoplanet is a planet outside the solar system, not outside the galaxy.
 
I still see no picture of any kind of planet. They give us a thermal image of a few balls... anyone can make that in photoshop. So we don't have actual pictures with the trillions we spend on this bs? We need to find a habitable planet now, within range... otherwise wtf is the damn purpose? I like earth anyways....
 
Have you heard of the voyager 1? It was launched in 1977, its currently 11 billion miles from earth, its travelling at 38,000 mph, it'll take 74,000 years before it reaches our nearest star proxima centauri.

Except it, or any of the other three satellites (Voyager 2, Pioneer 10 and 11) isn't aimed in Proxima Centauri's general direction. Taken from here:

Pioneer 10 is headed towards the constellation of Taurus (The Bull). It will take Pioneer over 2 million years to pass by one of the stars in the constellation.

Pioneer 11is headed toward the constellation of Aquila (The Eagle), Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 may pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years.

Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.5 AU per year, 35 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the north, in the general direction of the Solar Apex (the direction of the Sun's motion relative to nearby stars). Voyager 1 will leave the solar system aiming toward the constellation Ophiuchus. In the year 40,272 AD, Voyager 1 will come within 1.7 light years of an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear or Little Dipper) called AC+79 3888.

Voyager 2 is also escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.1 AU per year, 48 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the south toward the constellations of Sagitarrius and Pavo. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will come within about 1.7 light years of a star called Ross 248, a small star in the constellation of Andromeda.
 
I still see no picture of any kind of planet. They give us a thermal image of a few balls... anyone can make that in photoshop. So we don't have actual pictures with the trillions we spend on this bs? We need to find a habitable planet now, within range... otherwise wtf is the damn purpose? I like earth anyways....

If you're expecting high resolution visible light pictures of these planets, you're out of your mind. That's not how it works. Those are pictures of planets.

Also, we don't spend "trillions" on this. If anything, this sort of research is woefully underfunded while we waste money on pointless wars and redundant defense appropriations right here on Earth.

You seem to be ignorant of how science in general works. It's a gradual process as our capabilities increase. You don't accomplish anything by sitting here and going "Well since we can't find a habitable planet tomorrow and send people, we might as well just forget the whole thing."

I really feel sorry for you.
 
Well they've been saying this forever of course.. but now recently every news site is claiming we have tons of planets in the Milky Way now.

But I've yet to see a single picture, or any non-text proof of this.... so its really a waste of time every time I've check it out. We spend billions, upon billions... and nothing yet.

I wonder why they just don't make a bunch of little, cheap camera rockets and send them in every direction from our planet.... how hard is that? You'd surely find out tons of information...

Can anyone say....naivete?....:eek:
 
]
Also, we don't spend "trillions" on this. If anything, this sort of research is woefully underfunded while we waste money on pointless welfare programs and redundant entitlements right here on Earth.


You sure about that Fix there cowboy? Preview Post ftw ;)

And on the topic of spending. Who cares, we're never gonna pay the bill anyway. When someone comes knocking on our door for payment on the trillions we'll borrow, we'll just start a war with them, vaporize them, and move to a distant planet.

China will be the first, just wait. When interest goes tits up, and they come calling. We're gonna nuke that shit 1,000 times over, and then pull a shoulder shrug and be like, what, China, who?
 
Now the problem is actually getting to these places within a human lifetime, all the while mitigating the hazards and detriments of space (radiation, gamma rays, micro-meteorites, etc.) on the human body.

I'd be happy if we just found another civilization we could communicate with
somewhere else.

That alone would be amazing.
 
I still see no picture of any kind of planet. They give us a thermal image of a few balls... anyone can make that in photoshop. So we don't have actual pictures with the trillions we spend on this bs? We need to find a habitable planet now, within range... otherwise wtf is the damn purpose? I like earth anyways....

Take a science class, learn a little physics.....Geez...
 
If you're expecting high resolution visible light pictures of these planets, you're out of your mind. That's not how it works. Those are pictures of planets.

Also, we don't spend "trillions" on this. If anything, this sort of research is woefully underfunded while we waste money on pointless wars and redundant defense appropriations right here on Earth.

You seem to be ignorant of how science in general works. It's a gradual process as our capabilities increase. You don't accomplish anything by sitting here and going "Well since we can't find a habitable planet tomorrow and send people, we might as well just forget the whole thing."

I really feel sorry for you.

We can all leave Dylan alone now. NKDietrich has already said it and he probably said it better. <no sarcasm intended in any way shape or form>
 
We can all leave Dylan alone now. NKDietrich has already said it and he probably said it better. <no sarcasm intended in any way shape or form>

If the intelligent and/or educated people on this board don't drown out the ignorance, it tends to reflect poorly on the overall image of this forum. Also if it's just a single opinion vs opinion, then Dylan might actually walk away from this without considering he may be wrong.
 
you mean to say galaxy, not universe

One can surmise, that taking the galaxies in the universe (estimated) times the number of
habitable zone planets found in ours, gives an astounding number.
 
Wow... hahaha, some of you are way too technical and don't get what I am saying.

And I have a college degree, I know a little about science ;)

I am a realist, while you guys are obviously not....

And yes, trillions have been spent by NASA.... believe it or not, that's a fact. Wasted IMO, it hasn't brought us much for mankind.

Hopefully it does in the future, of course, but some of the things I've seen them piss money away on is really frustrating.
 
The Salarians and the Asari have known about this for a long time. Long before them the Protheans mastered intergalactic space travel and built glorious cities in many of these so called "exoplanets". This is nothing new, we humans really need to get off our self righteous high horses already.

-Nuke
 
The Salarians and the Asari have known about this for a long time. Long before them the Protheans mastered intergalactic space travel and built glorious cities in many of these so called "exoplanets". This is nothing new, we humans really need to get off our self righteous high horses already.

-Nuke

The question is: where will we find an intact alien cache that will jumpstart our FTL travel by 200 years?
 
And yes, trillions have been spent by NASA.... believe it or not, that's a fact. Wasted IMO, it hasn't brought us much for mankind.

Considering that NASA gets shit for a budget compared to the military, it may have been trillions, but over a huge number of years. And it sure as shit ain't cheap to get something even into LEO (low earth orbit), at $5-10k/lb. Your idea for launching a bunch of cheap camera probes just proves how much of a moron you really are. You will NEVER get one of those cheap probes to a nearby system within any appreciable time, as it will take thousands of years to get one to even the nearest star, plus the additional time required for it to report back (which is a fraction of the time that is required to get the probe to the observation point in the first place), therefore it's impractical vs. ground and orbit based observations. Besides, we all saw the results of NASA's "faster, cheaper" strategy...not as good as was
intended.

Obvious troll is obvious. :rolleyes:
 
This is only logical. There is no way in hell our star is the only one with planets orbiting it so NASA doesnt need to fake anything.
 
Wow... hahaha, some of you are way too technical and don't get what I am saying.

And I have a college degree, I know a little about science ;)

I am a realist, while you guys are obviously not....

And yes, trillions have been spent by NASA.... believe it or not, that's a fact. Wasted IMO, it hasn't brought us much for mankind.

Hopefully it does in the future, of course, but some of the things I've seen them piss money away on is really frustrating.

You're completely right, if you ignore that NASA R&D created or assisted in the create of

CAT scans
MRIs
Kidney dialysis machines
Heart defibrillator technology
Remote robotic surgery
Artificial heart pump technology
Physical therapy machines
Positron emission tomography
Microwave receivers used in scans for breast cancer
Cardiac angiography
Monitoring neutron activity in the brain
Cleaning techniques for hospital operating rooms
Portable x-ray technology
Freeze-dried food
Water purification filters
ATM technology
Pay at the Pump satellite technology
Image-processing software for crash-testing automobiles
Low-noise receivers
Cordless tools
A computer language used by businesses such as car repair shops, Kodak, hand-held computers, express mail
Aerial reconnaissance and Earth resources mapping
Airport baggage scanners
Distinction between natural space objects and satellites/warheads/rockets for defense
Satellite monitors for nuclear detonations
Hazardous gas sensors
Clock synchronization
Secure communications
Study of ozone depletion
Monitoring hurricanes
Fabrics for divers, swimmers, hazardous material workers, and others
Teflon-coated fiberglass for roofing material
The breathing system used by firefighters
 
I still see no picture of any kind of planet. They give us a thermal image of a few balls... anyone can make that in photoshop. So we don't have actual pictures with the trillions we spend on this bs? We need to find a habitable planet now, within range... otherwise wtf is the damn purpose? I like earth anyways....


Voyager 1.

cMxvl.jpg


It took THIRTY THREE YEARS for it to get where it has... and it wasn't until December of 2010 before it left our solar system. (The extent in which our sun has an influence and which bodies continue to orbit around it.)

Let that sink in, buddy. Voyager 1 is the farthest man made object we've sent out.

It's nearly 11 Billion Miles away from us... or in other terms, 0.002 light years away.

Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun, is about 4.2 light years away.

At its current rate... it'll take 73,600 years for it to pass Proxima Centauri. The closest star in which a planet could possibly be orbiting.

It was launched in 1977. It's undoubtedly older than you are.

Derp herp photoshop!
 
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Also.

The total amounts that NASA has been budgeted from 1958 to 2008 amounts to $471.23 billion dollars.

We haven't broken one HALF trillion yet when it comes to funding NASA.

Our national debt?

12 trillion and climbing.
 
I love how humans think that finding alien life will be such a wonderful thing. Has anyone ever considered that the Earth might be looked at as being "that" neighborhood where you have to lock the doors on your starship so that the locals don't steal the hubcaps? The human race is barbaric. Why would anyone WANT to visit here? Then there's the other part of this. If man were to develop the capability for faster-than-light travel, and thus be able to spread its depravity throughout the galaxy instead of it being restricted to the earth, then preventative measures might be taken. It would be rather one-sided as well.

Skeptics often bring up why nobody has landed on the White House lawn or sent communications to Earth and use that as proof that intelligent life doesn't exist elsewhere in the universe. They never bother to stop and think that maybe nobody wants to talk to you. Looking at man's history, why should they? Hawking is right in that alien contact with man would be disastrous, at least, at this point in time. The human race needs to grow up first, and stop fighting all the time. As long as humans seek to dominate other forms of life and each other I don't think you'll find any friends among the stars.
 
This has been quite an interesting thread,and the ownage that has been made here should make a certain person slink away into the abyss that he came from ;)
 
I love how humans think that finding alien life will be such a wonderful thing. Has anyone ever considered that the Earth might be looked at as being "that" neighborhood where you have to lock the doors on your starship so that the locals don't steal the hubcaps? The human race is barbaric. Why would anyone WANT to visit here? Then there's the other part of this. If man were to develop the capability for faster-than-light travel, and thus be able to spread its depravity throughout the galaxy instead of it being restricted to the earth, then preventative measures might be taken. It would be rather one-sided as well.

Skeptics often bring up why nobody has landed on the White House lawn or sent communications to Earth and use that as proof that intelligent life doesn't exist elsewhere in the universe. They never bother to stop and think that maybe nobody wants to talk to you. Looking at man's history, why should they? Hawking is right in that alien contact with man would be disastrous, at least, at this point in time. The human race needs to grow up first, and stop fighting all the time. As long as humans seek to dominate other forms of life and each other I don't think you'll find any friends among the stars.

Perhaps we as a species need that kick in the ass, so to speak.
 
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