This isn't my real question but did you hear about the other super Earths they found?

Question

if you didn't then read this http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080624/sc_space/astronomersonvergeoffindingearthstwin or if you did then can you tell me,could it contain life?if you think about it,we can't be the only living things in our Universe.there has to be life on those 3 super Earths they found!!!so please tell me if they think or if they know that there is life or no life on these 3 giant Earths.

Answer 1

yahoo twisted the scientific facts up a bit. first of all, these three so called "super earths" are not exactly like earth. they probably don't have as much water, and probably have different atmospheric compositions than earth. they are also going to be a lot hotter or a lot colder. and also, remember that these planets are light years away. it is too premature to say that they can sustain life.

the earth like twin theory isn't new. it has been around for a while, but yahoo just recently picked it up. of course there has to be a planet like earth. there are 750,000,000,000,000,000,000 solar systems in the visible universe. thats a rough estimate, and its in theory, but its a good approximation.

astronomers be 100% sure that these planets are anything like earth. this is all in theory. yahoo stretched it A LOT from the plain scientific proof.

Answer 2

Yeah i heard but i wasn't really sure, thought it may just be a rumour.

But why not, maybe there is life, maybe we'll know one day, maybe not.

Answer 3

It depends on its distance from the sun, too far away and it would be too cold to sustain life, too close and it would be too hot. The planet must also have an atmosphere and contain water, an essential for life. If these super earths are a similar distance from the sun our earth is and have similar conditions then yes, it's entirely possible for life to thrive on these planets, though due to their size the gravity would by much greater, producing unfamiliar lifeforms.

Answer 4

There at present is no way we can tell whether a planet has life on it or not. Also, I'm not convinced that planets as large as these, with orbital periods as short as these, would be particularly suitable for life. A lot of this "super Earth" stuff is hype in order to get their press releases noticed.

Answer 5

well the three super earths recently discovered are too close to their stars so water probably doesn't exist in liquid form there

also we dont yet know their atmospheric constitution so nothing can be said as of yet

another drawback is that we tend to think of life as we know it on earth

it may be possible that life exists in other forms like it may dring liquid nitrogen instead of water or breathe in hydrogen or anything else

this is much more probable than we think because adaptation to the surroundings is a characteristic feature of living beings so if life once evolves there it might adapt to the environment

without keeping this in mind our scientists have calculated a goldilocks zone for each planetary system we know which is the band where water is in liquid state

so far only one planet discovered lies in its goldilocks zone around the star Gliese681 but since it is a gas giant we dont suspect of life there.

out of about 270 exoplanets that we have found only 4-5 are terrestial so the chances of life among these is very slim

but im sure there is life out there and we will find it sooner or later

Answer 6

the universe is so big.  do you really think that with how huge it is we are the only ones here? i think not.