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New Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets Are Common



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 29th 10, 10:11 PM posted to alt.astronomy
Painius Painius is offline
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First recorded activity by SpaceBanter: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,144
Default New Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets Are Common

Oct. 28, 2010

Trent Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321


Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673


RELEASE: 10-279

NASA SURVEY SUGGESTS EARTH-SIZED PLANETS ARE COMMON

WASHINGTON -- Nearly one in four stars similar to the sun may host
planets as small as Earth, according to a new study funded by NASA
and the University of California.

The study is the most extensive and sensitive planetary census of its
kind. Astronomers used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for five
years to search 166 sun-like stars near our solar system for planets
of various sizes, ranging from three to 1,000 times the mass of
Earth.

All of the planets in the study orbit close to their stars. The
results show more small planets than large ones, indicating small
planets are more prevalent in our Milky Way galaxy.

"We studied planets of many masses -- like counting boulders, rocks
and pebbles in a canyon -- and found more rocks than boulders, and
more pebbles than rocks. Our ground-based technology can't see the
grains of sand, the Earth-size planets, but we can estimate their
numbers," said Andrew Howard of the University of California,
Berkeley, lead author of the study. "Earth-size planets in our galaxy
are like grains of sand sprinkled on a beach -- they are everywhere,"
Howard said.

The study is in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal Science.

The research provides a tantalizing clue that potentially habitable
planets also could be common. These hypothesized Earth-size worlds
would orbit farther away from their stars, where conditions could be
favorable for life. NASA's Kepler spacecraft also is surveying
sun-like stars for planets and is expected to find the first true
Earth-like planets in the next few years.

Howard and his planet-hunting team, which includes principal
investigator Geoff Marcy, also of the University of California,
Berkeley, looked for planets within 80-light-years of Earth, using
the radial velocity, or "wobble," technique.

They measured the numbers of planets falling into five groups, ranging
from 1,000 times the mass of Earth, or about three times the mass of
Jupiter, down to three times the mass of Earth. The search was
confined to planets orbiting close to their stars -- within 0.25
astronomical units, or a quarter of the distance between our sun and
Earth.

A distinct trend jumped out of the data: smaller planets outnumber
larger ones. Only 1.6 percent of stars were found to host giant
planets orbiting close in. That includes the three highest-mass
planet groups in the study, or planets comparable to Saturn and
Jupiter. About 6.5 percent of stars were found to have
intermediate-mass planets, with 10 to 30 times the mass of Earth --
planets the size of Neptune and Uranus. And 11.8 percent had the
so-called "super-Earths," weighing in at only three to 10 times the
mass of Earth.

"During planet formation, small bodies similar to asteroids and comets
stick together, eventually growing to Earth-size and beyond. Not all
of the planets grow large enough to become giant planets like Saturn
and Jupiter," Howard said. "It's natural for lots of these building
blocks, the small planets, to be left over in this process."

The astronomers extrapolated from these survey data to estimate that
23 percent of sun-like stars in our galaxy host even smaller planets,
the Earth-sized ones, orbiting in the hot zone close to a star. "This
is the statistical fruit of years of planet-hunting work," said
Marcy. "The data tell us that our galaxy, with its roughly 200
billion stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets, and that's
not counting Earth-size planets that orbit farther away from their
stars in the habitable zone."

The findings challenge a key prediction of some theories of planet
formation. Models predict a planet "desert" in the hot-zone region
close to stars, or a drop in the numbers of planets with masses less
than 30 times that of Earth. This desert was thought to arise because
most planets form in the cool, outer region of solar systems, and
only the giant planets were thought to migrate in significant numbers
into the hot inner region. The new study finds a surplus of close-in,
small planets where theories had predicted a scarcity.

"We are at the cusp of understanding the frequency of Earth-sized
planets among planetary systems in the solar neighborhood," said
Mario R. Perez, Keck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "This work is part of a key NASA science program and will
stimulate new theories to explain the significance and impact of
these findings."

For information about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program,
visit:

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov

Many Planeted Thank You to Ron Baalke of sci.space.news !

Happy days *and*...
Starry, starry nights !

--
Indelibly yours,
Paine Ellsworth

PS - "To the world you may be one person, but to one
person you may be the world." Bill Wilson

PPS - http://astro.painellsworth.net !
http://www.secretsgolden.com !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Paine_Ellsworth !


  #2  
Old October 31st 10, 02:31 PM posted to alt.astronomy
bert
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,997
Default New Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets Are Common

On Oct 29, 5:11*pm, "Painius" wrote:
Oct. 28, 2010

Trent Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321


Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673


RELEASE: 10-279

NASA SURVEY SUGGESTS EARTH-SIZED PLANETS ARE COMMON

WASHINGTON -- Nearly one in four stars similar to the sun may host
planets as small as Earth, according to a new study funded by NASA
and the University of California.

The study is the most extensive and sensitive planetary census of its
kind. Astronomers used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for five
years to search 166 sun-like stars near our solar system for planets
of various sizes, ranging from three to 1,000 times the mass of
Earth.

All of the planets in the study orbit close to their stars. The
results show more small planets than large ones, indicating small
planets are more prevalent in our Milky Way galaxy.

"We studied planets of many masses -- like counting boulders, rocks
and pebbles in a canyon -- and found more rocks than boulders, and
more pebbles than rocks. Our ground-based technology can't see the
grains of sand, the Earth-size planets, but we can estimate their
numbers," said Andrew Howard of the University of California,
Berkeley, lead author of the study. "Earth-size planets in our galaxy
are like grains of sand sprinkled on a beach -- they are everywhere,"
Howard said.

The study is in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal Science.

The research provides a tantalizing clue that potentially habitable
planets also could be common. These hypothesized Earth-size worlds
would orbit farther away from their stars, where conditions could be
favorable for life. NASA's Kepler spacecraft also is surveying
sun-like stars for planets and is expected to find the first true
Earth-like planets in the next few years.

Howard and his planet-hunting team, which includes principal
investigator Geoff Marcy, also of the University of California,
Berkeley, looked for planets within 80-light-years of Earth, using
the radial velocity, or "wobble," technique.

They measured the numbers of planets falling into five groups, ranging
from 1,000 times the mass of Earth, or about three times the mass of
Jupiter, down to three times the mass of Earth. The search was
confined to planets orbiting close to their stars -- within 0.25
astronomical units, or a quarter of the distance between our sun and
Earth.

A distinct trend jumped out of the data: smaller planets outnumber
larger ones. Only 1.6 percent of stars were found to host giant
planets orbiting close in. That includes the three highest-mass
planet groups in the study, or planets comparable to Saturn and
Jupiter. About 6.5 percent of stars were found to have
intermediate-mass planets, with 10 to 30 times the mass of Earth --
planets the size of Neptune and Uranus. And 11.8 percent had the
so-called "super-Earths," weighing in at only three to 10 times the
mass of Earth.

"During planet formation, small bodies similar to asteroids and comets
stick together, eventually growing to Earth-size and beyond. Not all
of the planets grow large enough to become giant planets like Saturn
and Jupiter," Howard said. "It's natural for lots of these building
blocks, the small planets, to be left over in this process."

The astronomers extrapolated from these survey data to estimate that
23 percent of sun-like stars in our galaxy host even smaller planets,
the Earth-sized ones, orbiting in the hot zone close to a star. "This
is the statistical fruit of years of planet-hunting work," said
Marcy. "The data tell us that our galaxy, with its roughly 200
billion stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets, and that's
not counting Earth-size planets that orbit farther away from their
stars in the habitable zone."

The findings challenge a key prediction of some theories of planet
formation. Models predict a planet "desert" in the hot-zone region
close to stars, or a drop in the numbers of planets with masses less
than 30 times that of Earth. This desert was thought to arise because
most planets form in the cool, outer region of solar systems, and
only the giant planets were thought to migrate in significant numbers
into the hot inner region. The new study finds a surplus of close-in,
small planets where theories had predicted a scarcity.

"We are at the cusp of understanding the frequency of Earth-sized
planets among planetary systems in the solar neighborhood," said
Mario R. Perez, Keck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "This work is part of a key NASA science program and will
stimulate new theories to explain the significance and impact of
these findings."

For information about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program,
visit:

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov

Many Planeted Thank You to Ron Baalke of sci.space.news !

Happy days *and*...
* *Starry, starry nights !

--
Indelibly yours,
Paine Ellsworth

PS - "To the world you may be one person, but to one
* * * * person you may be the world." * * * * Bill Wilson

PPS -http://astro.painellsworth.net!
* * * * * *http://www.secretsgolden.com!
* * * * * * * * * *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Paine_Ellsworth!


Venus is much like Earth almost same diameter. Its gravity is 90% of
Earth It can not have a molecule of life.much to hot Mean surface
temp. is 900F Carbon dioxide has made it a heat trap.It has no moon
It has really no magnetic field (0.0007 of Earth) Here is the kicker
It rotates once around in 243 days. Painius this begs the
question. Are Venus type planets much more popular than Earth
planets?. My answer would be yes. We must search for planets that look
like a blue marble.for hopefully they would relate to being more Earth
like TreBert
  #3  
Old October 31st 10, 08:34 PM posted to alt.astronomy
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 221
Default New Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets Are Common

On Oct 29, 2:11*pm, "Painius" wrote:
Oct. 28, 2010

Trent Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321


Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673


RELEASE: 10-279

NASA SURVEY SUGGESTS EARTH-SIZED PLANETS ARE COMMON

WASHINGTON -- Nearly one in four stars similar to the sun may host
planets as small as Earth, according to a new study funded by NASA
and the University of California.

The study is the most extensive and sensitive planetary census of its
kind. Astronomers used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for five
years to search 166 sun-like stars near our solar system for planets
of various sizes, ranging from three to 1,000 times the mass of
Earth.

All of the planets in the study orbit close to their stars. The
results show more small planets than large ones, indicating small
planets are more prevalent in our Milky Way galaxy.

"We studied planets of many masses -- like counting boulders, rocks
and pebbles in a canyon -- and found more rocks than boulders, and
more pebbles than rocks. Our ground-based technology can't see the
grains of sand, the Earth-size planets, but we can estimate their
numbers," said Andrew Howard of the University of California,
Berkeley, lead author of the study. "Earth-size planets in our galaxy
are like grains of sand sprinkled on a beach -- they are everywhere,"
Howard said.

The study is in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal Science.

The research provides a tantalizing clue that potentially habitable
planets also could be common. These hypothesized Earth-size worlds
would orbit farther away from their stars, where conditions could be
favorable for life. NASA's Kepler spacecraft also is surveying
sun-like stars for planets and is expected to find the first true
Earth-like planets in the next few years.

Howard and his planet-hunting team, which includes principal
investigator Geoff Marcy, also of the University of California,
Berkeley, looked for planets within 80-light-years of Earth, using
the radial velocity, or "wobble," technique.

They measured the numbers of planets falling into five groups, ranging
from 1,000 times the mass of Earth, or about three times the mass of
Jupiter, down to three times the mass of Earth. The search was
confined to planets orbiting close to their stars -- within 0.25
astronomical units, or a quarter of the distance between our sun and
Earth.

A distinct trend jumped out of the data: smaller planets outnumber
larger ones. Only 1.6 percent of stars were found to host giant
planets orbiting close in. That includes the three highest-mass
planet groups in the study, or planets comparable to Saturn and
Jupiter. About 6.5 percent of stars were found to have
intermediate-mass planets, with 10 to 30 times the mass of Earth --
planets the size of Neptune and Uranus. And 11.8 percent had the
so-called "super-Earths," weighing in at only three to 10 times the
mass of Earth.

"During planet formation, small bodies similar to asteroids and comets
stick together, eventually growing to Earth-size and beyond. Not all
of the planets grow large enough to become giant planets like Saturn
and Jupiter," Howard said. "It's natural for lots of these building
blocks, the small planets, to be left over in this process."

The astronomers extrapolated from these survey data to estimate that
23 percent of sun-like stars in our galaxy host even smaller planets,
the Earth-sized ones, orbiting in the hot zone close to a star. "This
is the statistical fruit of years of planet-hunting work," said
Marcy. "The data tell us that our galaxy, with its roughly 200
billion stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets, and that's
not counting Earth-size planets that orbit farther away from their
stars in the habitable zone."

The findings challenge a key prediction of some theories of planet
formation. Models predict a planet "desert" in the hot-zone region
close to stars, or a drop in the numbers of planets with masses less
than 30 times that of Earth. This desert was thought to arise because
most planets form in the cool, outer region of solar systems, and
only the giant planets were thought to migrate in significant numbers
into the hot inner region. The new study finds a surplus of close-in,
small planets where theories had predicted a scarcity.

"We are at the cusp of understanding the frequency of Earth-sized
planets among planetary systems in the solar neighborhood," said
Mario R. Perez, Keck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "This work is part of a key NASA science program and will
stimulate new theories to explain the significance and impact of
these findings."

For information about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program,
visit:

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov

Many Planeted Thank You to Ron Baalke of sci.space.news !

Happy days *and*...
* *Starry, starry nights !

--
Indelibly yours,
Paine Ellsworth

PS - "To the world you may be one person, but to one
* * * * person you may be the world." * * * * Bill Wilson

PPS -http://astro.painellsworth.net!
* * * * * *http://www.secretsgolden.com!
* * * * * * * * * *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Paine_Ellsworth!


nightbat

Correct Painius so few about to effect so many the Profound
Earth Science Team Officers, including cadet clueless saul.

so poetic
the Captain
  #4  
Old October 31st 10, 11:08 PM posted to alt.astronomy
Brad Guth[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15,175
Default New Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets Are Common

On Oct 29, 2:11*pm, "Painius" wrote:
Oct. 28, 2010

Trent Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321


Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673


RELEASE: 10-279

NASA SURVEY SUGGESTS EARTH-SIZED PLANETS ARE COMMON

WASHINGTON -- Nearly one in four stars similar to the sun may host
planets as small as Earth, according to a new study funded by NASA
and the University of California.

The study is the most extensive and sensitive planetary census of its
kind. Astronomers used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for five
years to search 166 sun-like stars near our solar system for planets
of various sizes, ranging from three to 1,000 times the mass of
Earth.

All of the planets in the study orbit close to their stars. The
results show more small planets than large ones, indicating small
planets are more prevalent in our Milky Way galaxy.

"We studied planets of many masses -- like counting boulders, rocks
and pebbles in a canyon -- and found more rocks than boulders, and
more pebbles than rocks. Our ground-based technology can't see the
grains of sand, the Earth-size planets, but we can estimate their
numbers," said Andrew Howard of the University of California,
Berkeley, lead author of the study. "Earth-size planets in our galaxy
are like grains of sand sprinkled on a beach -- they are everywhere,"
Howard said.

The study is in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal Science.

The research provides a tantalizing clue that potentially habitable
planets also could be common. These hypothesized Earth-size worlds
would orbit farther away from their stars, where conditions could be
favorable for life. NASA's Kepler spacecraft also is surveying
sun-like stars for planets and is expected to find the first true
Earth-like planets in the next few years.

Howard and his planet-hunting team, which includes principal
investigator Geoff Marcy, also of the University of California,
Berkeley, looked for planets within 80-light-years of Earth, using
the radial velocity, or "wobble," technique.

They measured the numbers of planets falling into five groups, ranging
from 1,000 times the mass of Earth, or about three times the mass of
Jupiter, down to three times the mass of Earth. The search was
confined to planets orbiting close to their stars -- within 0.25
astronomical units, or a quarter of the distance between our sun and
Earth.

A distinct trend jumped out of the data: smaller planets outnumber
larger ones. Only 1.6 percent of stars were found to host giant
planets orbiting close in. That includes the three highest-mass
planet groups in the study, or planets comparable to Saturn and
Jupiter. About 6.5 percent of stars were found to have
intermediate-mass planets, with 10 to 30 times the mass of Earth --
planets the size of Neptune and Uranus. And 11.8 percent had the
so-called "super-Earths," weighing in at only three to 10 times the
mass of Earth.

"During planet formation, small bodies similar to asteroids and comets
stick together, eventually growing to Earth-size and beyond. Not all
of the planets grow large enough to become giant planets like Saturn
and Jupiter," Howard said. "It's natural for lots of these building
blocks, the small planets, to be left over in this process."

The astronomers extrapolated from these survey data to estimate that
23 percent of sun-like stars in our galaxy host even smaller planets,
the Earth-sized ones, orbiting in the hot zone close to a star. "This
is the statistical fruit of years of planet-hunting work," said
Marcy. "The data tell us that our galaxy, with its roughly 200
billion stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets, and that's
not counting Earth-size planets that orbit farther away from their
stars in the habitable zone."

The findings challenge a key prediction of some theories of planet
formation. Models predict a planet "desert" in the hot-zone region
close to stars, or a drop in the numbers of planets with masses less
than 30 times that of Earth. This desert was thought to arise because
most planets form in the cool, outer region of solar systems, and
only the giant planets were thought to migrate in significant numbers
into the hot inner region. The new study finds a surplus of close-in,
small planets where theories had predicted a scarcity.

"We are at the cusp of understanding the frequency of Earth-sized
planets among planetary systems in the solar neighborhood," said
Mario R. Perez, Keck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "This work is part of a key NASA science program and will
stimulate new theories to explain the significance and impact of
these findings."

For information about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program,
visit:

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov

Many Planeted Thank You to Ron Baalke of sci.space.news !

Happy days *and*...
* *Starry, starry nights !

--
Indelibly yours,
Paine Ellsworth

PS - "To the world you may be one person, but to one
* * * * person you may be the world." * * * * Bill Wilson

PPS -http://astro.painellsworth.net!
* * * * * *http://www.secretsgolden.com!
* * * * * * * * * *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Paine_Ellsworth!


There’s no question as to what surplus molecular/nebula mass, spent
stars and those pesky nova/supernova have contributed a great many
cosmic body parts, including rogue protons, neutrons, electrons and
those carbon buckyballs that all sorts of other elements (including
ice) can bond with. Perhaps there even more rogue mass than
gravitationally bound mass in our galaxy.

According to others that devote years of their mostly public funded
expertise and some of our best technology in order to study and
extensively research a given theory or notion to death, 1 in 4 stars
like ours offers an Earth like planet, and that’s not including
whatever red dwarfs and of those much larger than our sun should have
to offer, plus there’s all of them pesky rogue items from spent or
exploded stars that have to exist unless having since gotten vaporized
or their having survived as captured by some other solar system.

Perhaps as many as one out of a thousand stars is offering a similar
enough solar system worthy sun to that of our own. Considering 500e9
stars = 500e6 planet worthy solar systems, and if only one out of 5 of
those is hosting an Earth like planet is 100e6 naked Goldilocks
certified as wet Eden/Earth like planets within our galaxy.
Unfortunately there are few if any of those within 100 ly of us, so
that even multi-generational starships are not going to be viable
unless 0.5 c velocity becomes doable (limited as to robotic probes
because of the lethal radiation created by such velocity).

There are actually few if any identical stars, planets or moons, and
certainly no such identical solar systems as to compare anything to a
given cosmological standard, because there simply is no such
cosmological standard. For all we know, our solar system could be the
most odd-ball and the least likely to survive the true test of time
(it certainly could have used a better sun so that at least two wet
planets and their moons could have been naked Goldilocks worthy for
tens of billions of years, whereas instead we’ll be lucky to get
another couple billion before it starts getting downright unbearable).

However, extremely large and massive stars like Sirius(B) most likely
started out with hosting a few gas giants plus other heavy element
saturated planets or even a few as having Earth sized moons, some of
which likely survived the expedited sudden demise of their extra
massive star. My estimate of all the Ceres and larger items as rogue
survivors of those short lived stars is 128e9256e9 per galaxy, and
the James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) will likely spot some of those
rogue items for us, along with the external StarShade improvements for
JWST and other observing instruments making those previously obscured
Goldilocks exoplanets appear.

All included, there could actually be more rogue mass than captured or
orbital/tidal bound mass in our galaxy.

By many acceptable applied physics standards and technology, even the
toasty planet Venus is perfectly intelligent goldilocks worthy,
although not as naked or as snookered and dumbfounded past the point
of no return as are most Earthly redneck goldilocks that are deathly
afraid of their own shadow and worse of whatever voodoo faith-based
cabal or political mafia that they belong to.

~ BG
 




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