The last time we visited this subject, which you know must be vexing for creationists, was Now 54 Extra-Solar Planets in Habitable Zone, and before that we wrote Earth-like Planets May Be Very Common. Those who believe that the universe was created in six days, not very long ago, so that Adam & Eve could live a life of obedience in the nude, must be squirming to adjust to the apparent abundance of other worlds out there.
The news is in a press release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) titled: Fifty New Exoplanets Discovered by HARPS. HARPS stands for the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher.
Here are some excerpts from the ESO press release, with bold font added by us:
Astronomers using ESO’s world-leading exoplanet hunter HARPS have today announced a rich haul of more than 50 new exoplanets, including 16 super-Earths, one of which orbits at the edge of the habitable zone of its star. By studying the properties of all the HARPS planets found so far, the team has found that about 40% of stars similar to the Sun have at least one planet lighter than Saturn.
Stars “similar to the Sun” means Class G stars, estimated to be about one in thirteen of the main-sequence stars in the solar neighborhood. So that’s a whole lotta planets. Back to the press release:
In the eight years since it started surveying stars like the Sun using the radial velocity technique HARPS has been used to discover more than 150 new planets. About two thirds of all the known exoplanets with masses less than that of Neptune were discovered by HARPS. These exceptional results are the fruit of several hundred nights of HARPS observations
Working with HARPS observations of 376 Sun-like stars, astronomers have now also much improved the estimate of how likely it is that a star like the Sun is host to low-mass planets (as opposed to gaseous giants). They find that about 40% of such stars have at least one planet less massive than Saturn. The majority of exoplanets of Neptune mass or less appear to be in systems with multiple planets.
But still, those are large planets. We realize the detection technique is still in its infancy, but what about Earth-sized planets? The press release says:
Ten nearby stars similar to the Sun were selected for a new survey. These stars had already been observed by HARPS and are known to be suitable for extremely precise radial velocity measurements. After two years of work, the team of astronomers has discovered five new planets with masses less than five times that of Earth.
Not bad! But what’s next? Let’s read on:
“These planets will be among the best targets for future space telescopes to look for signs of life in the planet’s atmosphere by looking for chemical signatures such as evidence of oxygen,” explains Francesco Pepe (Geneva Observatory, Switzerland), the lead author of one of the recent papers.
Wait — it gets better:
One of the recently announced newly discovered planets, HD 85512 b, is estimated to be only 3.6 times the mass of the Earth and is located at the edge of the habitable zone — a narrow zone around a star in which water may be present in liquid form if conditions are right.
We can’t wait for the creationists’ reactions. The press release continues:
These results make astronomers confident that they are close to discovering other small rocky habitable planets around stars similar to our Sun. New instruments are planned to further this search. These include a copy of HARPS to be installed on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands, to survey stars in the northern sky, as well as a new and more powerful planet-finder, called ESPRESSO, to be installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2016. Looking further into the future also the CODEX instrument on the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will push this technique to a higher level.
Aren’t the Americans involved in this? Well, food stamps are more important these days. Anyway, the knowledge will belong to all of us.
See also: Discoveroids’ Reaction to Extra-Solar Planets.
See also: Klinghoffer Opines on SETI.
See also: Even More Extra-Solar Planets.
Copyright © 2011. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
. 
. Permalink for this article
sure we are, Kepler is also looking. I second you to an extent on the food stamp thing, though.
Caint compare waistin time lookin at Satanz imageses on that there teliscopey thangy to bringin a hungrie man to Jebus! 1Wacadoodles 3:25
I’m looking forward to the discovery of the first Class M planet.
I’m looking forward to the discovery of the first Dyson sphere.
give me a wombat that I can bullseye with my t16 anyday.
Can I have one? I’ve always wanted my own planet.
A ring world or a Dyson sphere would be even better.
b_sharp asks: “Can I have one? I’ve always wanted my own planet.”
Sure, Tundra Boy! We’re re-creating the Homestead Act. If you can get there and stake your claim, it’s yours.
Dyson sphere meh. I already have one of those on the bottom of my Dyson vacuum. Oh not the same?
We know that AIG and ICR have already stated that there is no other life in the universe. ICR directly, and AIG stating that it is not biblical. The DI has been a little more vague, but generally ridicule the idea. (which is strange, since they avoid any descriptions of the designer, such as whether or not he/she/it would create life on other worlds)
Hopefully one of these groups will take this opportunity to provide us with some humorous writing.
I’m still holding out for a small, not-yet-detectable planet in the habitable zones around Alpha Centauri A or B. That would truly send the creationists into orbit, along with the rest of us.
I remember watching Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” as a kid and thinking mainly, “wonder-schmuder — this looks like a lot of math”. Reading about things like this, and seeing some of the other layers being peeled back off the cosmic onion* (so to speak) I think I’m starting to understand the sense of wonder that he described so eloquently.
* Sorry, that metaphor really stinks.
presence or abscence of extraterrestrial life has no bearing on the truth of evolution on this planet. even if we really are one giant cosmic accident, the creationists and the discoveroids are still wrong. However, it would be awesome to find something or someone else out there just to further stick it to them.
Evolution is important to the field of Astrobiology.
@LRA:Evolution is important to the field of Astrobiology.
Sure it is. But whether there are any subjects for astrobiology to study depends on how likely it is that life can develop in the Universe, and we simply have no way to know that. Astrobiology, like magnetic monopoles, has a lot of science lined up just waiting for some evidence of existence to come along.
I agree with TJW that if life is confined only to Earth, which I am not all uncomfortable with, that life still came into existence through the laws of chemistry and physics and developed by natural selection and a few other natural processes.
“chemistry AND physics”.
Thought for me is almost entirely in spoken words, so I’m prone to type things that rhyme with the word of thinking of.
Be interesting if we discovered artifical extraterrestrial life. DI would be in a hell of a bind then. Unambiguously designed life, but NOT created by the God of Abraham.
Gabriel Hanna says:
I don’t think they’ll be around that long.
Curmudgeon says: “I don’t think they’ll be around that long.”
one can only hope. But we have to be careful, because as you’re well aware evolution is a theory in crisis.
@LRA:
I’m in no way saying anything negative about the search for extraterrestrial life. I would be thrilled if we found something, but as I said, whether or not it exists has no bearing on the truth of the ToE
Artificial life, robots, actually, is how our species will survive, in concept. Once we learn how to create sentient life forms that only require a current gradient to operate, i.e. live, then we will be free from all of the aspects of biological life that keep us chained to the planet. As Arthur Clarke wrote in one of the 2001 series, it will be HAL who travels to the stars, not our descendants. In fact, such a life form could be turned off for the duration of the voyage and rebooted at the destination with no concept or interest of the intervening time.
Doc Bill says:
If I were HAL, I wouldn’t want to be shut off. It’s not as if I’d get bored or anything.
Join the Mormon Church, they’ll set you up with one (Some restrictions apply).