Scientists to unveil new Earth-like planet

[dubious_doomhammer]

Not discovering life on one of Jupiter's moons would only be proof that we have not discovered life on one of Jupiter's moons, not that there is no life elsewhere in the Universe.

The only way we can find out if there is no life elsewhere is to explore everywhere else, which is not feasible as far as we are aware.

As far as I'm aware, they can measure chemical composition of stars, and can indirectly measure the composition of transiting planets.

Since oxygen doesn't exist naturally in abundance, they believe oxygen (in abundance), will be a "bio signature". So we won't know absolutely for sure if there's life on a planet, but scientists can make pretty good guesses if life does exist ... which makes it feasible, sort of.

[Fascinate]

There is this weird psychological phenomenon, when a person replaces reality with some virtual image, contradicting any evidence - and, considering themselves open-minded, sees everyone who doesn't buy their image as close-minded fools, or, even worse, "sheeple". They know, they very clearly know, that this image is based on deliberate ignorance - and yet, for some reason, they want to believe in it, and can't stand others believing otherwise.

Of course, such people rarely become scientists. Hence we don't see much of them on conferences or at research institutes. They are plentiful online though. What they are trying to accomplish, I've never managed to figure out...

History has shown the status quo to be ever evolving, i should just accept everything science tells me when my senses dictate otherwise? Questions need to be asked, this is how things move forward.

In our current predicament, the only way i see us moving forward is if we retrace our steps a few hundred years.....which in the scale of things really isnt that much. One guy getting something wrong in the chain can mess up everything up, i think that is exactly where we are at now.

[Hammerfest]

What does NASA have to do with this story?

Good point. Here's my correction...

Scientists to unveil a new planet?

Wow, that's a first.

[Forogil]

As far as I'm aware, they can measure chemical composition of stars, and can indirectly measure the composition of transiting planets.

They cannot measure it for all transiting planets yet (and not even a large fraction it seems; and all planets are not detected as transiting) - and it seems unclear if we can do it for planets likely to have life.

[May90]

As far as I'm aware, they can measure chemical composition of stars, and can indirectly measure the composition of transiting planets.

Since oxygen doesn't exist naturally in abundance, they believe oxygen (in abundance), will be a "bio signature". So we won't know absolutely for sure if there's life on a planet, but scientists can make pretty good guesses if life does exist ... which makes it feasible, sort of.

They can, to an extent. One of the biggest problems here is that the radiation from the nearby star is too strong to make out a tiny planetary signal of it. We rarely can even detect any light coming from a planet at all, due to their low levels of radiation and small sizes - and when we do detect it, it is harshly suppressed by the star.

There are some indirect ways to still make a guess on abundance of certain elements, but, AFAIK, they are very unreliable and are based on a lot of extra assumptions that might or might not be true.

History has shown the status quo to be ever evolving, i should just accept everything science tells me when my senses dictate otherwise? Questions need to be asked, this is how things move forward.

In our current predicament, the only way i see us moving forward is if we retrace our steps a few hundred years.....which in the scale of things really isnt that much. One guy getting something wrong in the chain can mess up everything up, i think that is exactly where we are at now.

One guy getting something wrong won't mess anything up, because the amount of cross-checking done by the scientific community every time a new claim is made is insane. Literally thousands researchers should be consistently getting something wrong, for it to mess everything up.

And yes, science is evolving, and the status quo with it. It is evolving based on scientific method though, not on someone saying, "I think Earth might be at the center of the Universe. I don't have any data to back it up, but it can be true!!!" Such "Russell's Teapot" arguments have little to do with science.

[Fascinate]

They can, to an extent. One of the biggest problems here is that the radiation from the nearby star is too strong to make out a tiny planetary signal of it. We rarely can even detect any light coming from a planet at all, due to their low levels of radiation and small sizes - and when we do detect it, it is harshly suppressed by the star.

There are some indirect ways to still make a guess on abundance of certain elements, but, AFAIK, they are very unreliable and are based on a lot of extra assumptions that might or might not be true.


One guy getting something wrong won't mess anything up, because the amount of cross-checking done by the scientific community every time a new claim is made is insane. Literally thousands researchers should be consistently getting something wrong, for it to mess everything up.

And yes, science is evolving, and the status quo with it. It is evolving based on scientific method though, not on someone saying, "I think Earth might be at the center of the Universe. I don't have any data to back it up, but it can be true!!!" Such "Russell's Teapot" arguments have little to do with science.

Thing is, all of this "fact checking" has to go through a filter where the filter itself could be wrong. Its going to be real interesting to see what science does in the next 5-10 years, very exciting times indeed.

[May90]

Thing is, all of this "fact checking" has to go through a filter where the filter itself could be wrong. Its going to be real interesting to see what science does in the next 5-10 years, very exciting times indeed.

That's why people always use multiple filters at a time to make sure everything is consistent. Sometimes, sure, we have some principal misunderstanding - then we are gradually overcoming it, as we get the new data challenging our preconceptions.

And yes, questioning everything we believe in should be happening all the time. But that questioning should be coming from deep knowledge of the subject and catching illogical conclusions and far-fetching interpretations of experimental results, not from sheer ignorance and sci-fi fantasies.

[Fascinate]

That's why people always use multiple filters at a time to make sure everything is consistent. Sometimes, sure, we have some principal misunderstanding - then we are gradually overcoming it, as we get the new data challenging our preconceptions.

And yes, questioning everything we believe in should be happening all the time. But that questioning should be coming from deep knowledge of the subject and catching illogical conclusions and far-fetching interpretations of experimental results, not from sheer ignorance and sci-fi fantasies.

I know my ideas are hard to swallow in 2016 i totally get that, just know the place i am coming from is a good one. I had no pre-conceived notions when i set out to understand why science was stuck ~10 years ago. When i boil everything down, the mere possibility that earth CAN be in the center of the universe (with our current theories) well that really speaks to my common senses.

Like i said above, it truly is an exciting time to be alive. I just hope im here to see the next scientific revolution happen, whatever that happens to be.

[May90]

I know my ideas are hard to swallow in 2016 i totally get that, just know the place i am coming from is a good one. I had no pre-conceived notions when i set out to understand why science was stuck ~10 years ago. When i boil everything down, the mere possibility that earth CAN be in the center of the universe (with our current theories) well that really speaks to my common senses.

Like i said above, it truly is an exciting time to be alive. I just hope im here to see the next scientific revolution happen, whatever that happens to be.

Science wasn't stuck 10 years ago, nor is it stuck today. I'm not sure where you get the idea of it being stuck...

[Fascinate]

Science wasn't stuck 10 years ago, nor is it stuck today. I'm not sure where you get the idea of it being stuck...

Come on dude, really lol?

We don't know what 95% of the universe is made of, and that isnt stuck to you?

[May90]

Come on dude, really lol?

We don't know what 95% of the universe is made of, and that isnt stuck to you?

Dark matter and dark energy are not the only topics in the modern science. Plus, we have pretty much figured out how dark energy works already, and we have a few good guesses on what dark matter might be. It is way further than we were, say, 15 years ago.

You have a very poor understanding of how science works. Sometimes, to figure something out, we need many-many decades, if not centuries. It doesn't mean we are "stuck", it means we are working on it. We are always working on something, and we will never know everything there is to know.

[Fascinate]

Dark matter and dark energy are not the only topics in the modern science. Plus, we have pretty much figured out how dark energy works already, and we have a few good guesses on what dark matter might be. It is way further than we were, say, 15 years ago.

You have a very poor understanding of how science works. Sometimes, to figure something out, we need many-many decades, if not centuries. It doesn't mean we are "stuck", it means we are working on it. We are always working on something, and we will never know everything there is to know.

Umm, but that is precisely the reason i even made one post in this thread? I am not against science as a whole here my man. How is that not glaringly obvious to you when i say science is stuck currently? Is there not a bigger question than the origin of our universe?

[May90]

Umm, but that is precisely the reason i even made one post in this thread? I am not against science as a whole here my man. How is that not glaringly obvious to you when i say science is stuck currently? Is there not a bigger question than the origin of our universe?

When you make a statement, you should make it clear. You were talking just about science in that particular comment.

Is our understanding of dark matter and dark energy flawed and incomplete? Sure. Are we stuck? No, we are gradually learning more and more about them. And it doesn't matter what a bigger question is: there are millions scientists in the world, and science can work on thousands fields at once.

[May90]

True Words there is just to much out there and we dont even know all about our Planet what is there in the deepest ocean point and we dont know all Animals we dont understand many things and our lifes are to short to know all but we work on it how you said its creepy when you imagne there is so much out there we dont know and we die on day without to know but who know whats coming after dead correct no one returned :P.

The funniest thing is, the more we learn about the world, the more we realize how little we actually know, as usually a new discovery comes along with multiple new questions. In a sense, we get more ignorant, the more we learn.

[Forogil]

And now it is revealed:
https://palereddot.org/proxima-b-is-...et-used-to-it/
with FAP (False Alarm Probability) a lot less than 0.1%

[Deleted]

I hope they have a solid defensive system... :P