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Old 08-30-2011, 11:07 PM
 
Location: Richardson, TX
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A new planet found about 36 light-years away could be one of the most Earthlike worlds yet—if it has enough clouds, a new study says.


New Planet May Be Among Most Earthlike
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Old 08-31-2011, 08:34 AM
 
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That's an interesting find. It'd be interesting to know if there's liquid water on HD85512b. If we can develop more powerful equipment or techniques to actually see the planet, instead of just detecting its presence by how the star's light wobbles, we'd be able to analyze its atmosphere to determine what's there. We'd even be able to determine the presence of life (if there's enough of it) from the atmosphere's chemical makeup, although it's too far to actually see the surface.

Looks like that solar system is about a billion years older than ours. If I'm not mistaken, a 200 pound man would weigh about 280 pounds there. The distance from the parent star would make it pretty toasty, and if enough liquid water is there, it'd be pretty humid, but overall, life could potentially develop and evolve there.

Just as a note for those who don't understand the term "earthlike". It means it's a rocky planet with a size that's closer to that of the Earth. It doesn't mean that it's the same as the Earth though. For all we know, and we don't, is that it could just be a rocky, barren planet, or have an atmosphere very different than that of the Earth.

We may eventually find other rocky exoplanets that are indeed the size of the Earth, in habitable zones more closely to that of the Earth, and contain an atmosphere very similar to that of the Earth's. And we should be able to determine whether or not life of some kind exists on such planets. It's just a matter of time before we'll have the means to do that.

I tried to give you some rep points, but I gotta spread it around.
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Old 08-31-2011, 01:40 PM
 
Location: Texas
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I was just thinking the water supply would be a lot different. Maybe in the ground, or as fog, or maybe even frost at times. I'd sure miss rain if I lived there -- apparently it doesn't have enough clouds, though that may not be accurate.
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Old 08-31-2011, 02:03 PM
 
Location: Richardson, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson View Post
I gave him a rep
I was just thinking the water supply would be a lot different. Maybe in the ground, or as fog, or maybe even frost at times. I'd sure miss rain if I lived there -- apparently it doesn't have enough clouds, though that may not be accurate.

Hey thanks. I hear rain is on the way for us, but that is just a rumor, and you didn't hear it from me.
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Old 08-31-2011, 02:13 PM
 
Location: Texas
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Originally Posted by PanTerra View Post
Hey thanks. I hear rain is on the way for us, but that is just a rumor, and you didn't hear it from me.
We REALLY need rain in Texas. If you have any rain you don't need, send it to us.
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Old 08-31-2011, 02:34 PM
 
5,463 posts, read 9,598,031 times
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Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson View Post
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I was just thinking the water supply would be a lot different. Maybe in the ground, or as fog, or maybe even frost at times. I'd sure miss rain if I lived there -- apparently it doesn't have enough clouds, though that may not be accurate.
I'm not sure about frost. It would depend on whether the planet rotates on it's own axis or is tidally locked. If it's the latter, frost could well be present on the dark side. If it rotates on it's own axis, maybe not. In either case, I don't think it would be possible determine for a planet that small. The only indications were that the distance of the planet from its host star is about the same as Venus is from the Sun. The article states the planet would be quite warm and humid if water is present. Any suggestion about clouds would be a 'what-if' scenario. Sounds a bit like Thailand .

I don't think we have any way to determine the presence of clouds. In fact, it isn't known if there's any water there either, although it's location is in a zone that would allow water to be in a liquid state, if it has any. All that was detected was the presence of the planet by means of the wobble in the star's brightness. The planet itself hasn't been seen.

You're right though. It could retain water if there's a cloud cover of at least 50% to reflect solar energy back into space. Otherwise, it would probably evaporate leaving ithe planet barren and dry. Earth has a cloud cover average of about 60%.
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Old 08-31-2011, 02:57 PM
 
Location: Texas
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I wonder if the planet can be seen better with a different telescope. Harp seems to be more designed to see wobble and so forth, as well as it's distance from the star and length of revolution.

BTW, read the Wiki article about Venus. Very interesting. One little detail I had read maybe 15 years ago was that it not only had lightning, but it never hit the ground...
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Old 08-31-2011, 06:52 PM
 
Location: Richardson, TX
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Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson View Post
We REALLY need rain in Texas. If you have any rain you don't need, send it to us.
YOu know, I am in Texas, too, hence the "us."
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Old 08-31-2011, 07:44 PM
 
Location: Elgin, Illinois
1,200 posts, read 1,597,439 times
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Originally Posted by NightBazaar View Post
That's an interesting find. It'd be interesting to know if there's liquid water on HD85512b. If we can develop more powerful equipment or techniques to actually see the planet, instead of just detecting its presence by how the star's light wobbles, we'd be able to analyze its atmosphere to determine what's there. We'd even be able to determine the presence of life (if there's enough of it) from the atmosphere's chemical makeup, although it's too far to actually see the surface.

Looks like that solar system is about a billion years older than ours. If I'm not mistaken, a 200 pound man would weigh about 280 pounds there. The distance from the parent star would make it pretty toasty, and if enough liquid water is there, it'd be pretty humid, but overall, life could potentially develop and evolve there.

Just as a note for those who don't understand the term "earthlike". It means it's a rocky planet with a size that's closer to that of the Earth. It doesn't mean that it's the same as the Earth though. For all we know, and we don't, is that it could just be a rocky, barren planet, or have an atmosphere very different than that of the Earth.

We may eventually find other rocky exoplanets that are indeed the size of the Earth, in habitable zones more closely to that of the Earth, and contain an atmosphere very similar to that of the Earth's. And we should be able to determine whether or not life of some kind exists on such planets. It's just a matter of time before we'll have the means to do that.

I tried to give you some rep points, but I gotta spread it around.
Why do people assume that other planets need the same type of atmosphere to have life? Can't it also be possible for other life forms to breath different types of gases?
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Old 08-31-2011, 08:44 PM
 
5,463 posts, read 9,598,031 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson View Post
I wonder if the planet can be seen better with a different telescope. Harp seems to be more designed to see wobble and so forth, as well as it's distance from the star and length of revolution.

BTW, read the Wiki article about Venus. Very interesting. One little detail I had read maybe 15 years ago was that it not only had lightning, but it never hit the ground...
I took a better look at the info on the planet. Temp is estimated at about 298 degrees Kelvin (77 degrees Fahrenheit). I'm not sure how the temp was determined. I was wrong about Thailand though. Thailand is hotter . If its orbit is a little farther out than Venus is from the Sun, seems like it'd be warmer than 77 degrees. A temp comparison is that it's similar to the South of France.

Various atmospheric conditions of the planet need to be analyzed to get a more exact value of the temp. Atmosphere? Part of the estimate is based on a model of rocky planets with H2O/CO2/N2 atmospheres, like Earth. That would have to be done spectroscopically. HARP is used to detect the wobble, but apparently there's more to the entire study. I didn't know this but the ESO's La Silla Observatory, which made the discovery, has a high resolution echelle spectrograph (HIRES) which was used to detect the planet. Evidently it can detect an atmosphere of an exoplanet and perhaps determine whether water is present or not. I'm not at all clear exactly how it's all done, but there's sme pretty fancy equipment involved. There's always something new to learn about.

Another interesting piece of info is that the planet's orbital period is about 54 days. That's a pretty short year.
HD 85512 b - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[1108.3561] A Habitable Planet around HD 85512?

Is There A Habitable Planet Circling HD 85512? | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

La Silla Observatory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ESO - La Silla Telescopes: ESO 3.6m


If what you're wondering about maybe using a different telescope to see it better, I'm not sure if the Hubble telescope could snap a photo of it or not, but I'd guess probably not. The planet might be too small and too close to it's parent star for a visual image with current technology. I would think a space telescope would be more likely than a ground-based telescope (Earth's atmosphere is a problem). Still, it's amazing what ground-based telescopes are able to do thanks to changes in technology.
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