Video has recently emerged of a speech by Professor Dimitar Sasselov, Harvard astronomer and co-investigator of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, where he declared that the "Galaxy is rich in small, Earth-like planets." His speech was given at a Technology Entertainment and Design conference at Oxford University in mid-July where speakers are limited to 18 minutes on the latest scientific trends. The Kepler telescope uncovered evidence of up to 140 different planets similar in size to the Earth. Sasselov believes that the discovery amounts to a Copernican revolution where a clear affirmative answer is given to the question: “Are there other Earth like planets out there that can harbor life?” Significantly, Sasselov asserts that the evidence points to more earth-like planets in the galaxy than gas giants as previously thought. Estimates of earth-like planets in the galaxy could be quickly revised up to 100 million or more. Most importantly, he says that the data allows scientists to scan exoplanets for tell tale signs of life. Sasselov’s findings is good news for researchers in the fields of astrobiology and exopolitics since it encourages more scientific inquiry into the implications of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Sasselov’s speech was quickly featured in the international media with bold headlines such as Britain’s Daily Mail that “More than 100 'Earth-like' planets discovered in past few weeks." Not so fast according to Space.com.
What Dimitar presented was 'candidates,'" said David Koch, the mission's deputy principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "These have the apparent signature we are looking for, but then we must perform extensive follow-up observations to eliminate false positives, such as background eclipsing binaries. This requires substantial amounts of ground-based observing which is done primarily in the summer observing season."
Indeed, Sasselov confirmed that more work was to be done over the summer to confirm what the Kepler data was suggesting, and that more news was “to come later in the year!"
That did not however stop Sasselov commenting on the significance of what has been discovered so far. He said that smaller rocky Earth like planets were statistically more common than gas giants: "Even before we have confirmed the planets among these hundreds of candidates, we can see statistically that the smaller-sized planets will be more common than the large-sized (Jupiter- and Saturn-like ones) in the sample,"
Sasselov explained that the results so far of the Kepler mission heralded a Corpernican revolution. Just as Corpernicus revolutionized astronomy by publishing data that the solar system rotated around the sun, rather than the earth, so too the data from the Kepler mission would lead to another scientific revolution. Rather than planets like earth being unique or an uncommon occurrence in the galaxy, they in fact are plentiful. Sasselov declared in his speech that the “Galaxy is rich in small, Earth-like planets”
While more scientific investigation will occur in the months ahead to confirm the results of the Kepler mission so far, its implications are enormous. Astrobiologists will be able to conclude with great confidence that extraterrestrial life is certain to exist elsewhere in the galaxy. Importantly, for the field of exopolitics, intelligent extraterrestrial life will also be deemed certain to exist, and this has profound social and political implications for humanity. In April 2010, Prof Stephen Hawking claimed it was “perfectly rational” to discuss the motivations of advanced extraterrestrial life. The findings of the Kepler mission make inquiry into the possible motivations of intelligent extraterrestrial life not only “perfectly rational" but now a logical necessity. The Kepler space telescope results will not only bring about an astronomical revolution, but a revolution in social and political thought about technologically advanced intelligent life in the galaxy and its impact on humanity.
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Comments
If all those Earth-like planets have Obama-like leaders then,....they might NOT be so rich.
Way to go "Jamie" keeping this about science. One of the most important non-political discoveries of this century and you could not restrain yourself; otherwise great and hopeful article!
This kind of breakthrough is cause for some new calculations. If Kepler is only looking at 156,000 stars at thousands of light years distance (a small area of sky), it means that's only a straight-on view. Kepler was designed to view a small, distant patch of sky so that it would get many stars in one direct line of sight. It takes up to 1 1/2 years to wait for a transit (a full orbit), and that would only account for the planets that rotate around in our (idealized) plane of view, essentially. In other words, if the 1 out of up to 1000 stars ratio holds, then we must account for the many more planets rotating out of that straight-on plane. Add to that, planets that haven't yet completed a revolution into Kepler's line of sight. In short, we have to consider that this galaxy probably has many advanced life forms in it. Which is very good news!
Our own solar system is rich in small earthlike planets (Mars, Venus, Earth), for heaven sake. Scientists are such plodding idiots. Heck, essential proof* (i.e. < 100%) of the existence of intelligent extra-terrestrial life (beings) has existed for almost 18 years now. But because some of these beings are clearly far more advanced than humans, scientists will no doubt ignore and pooh-pooh the evidence of this for centuries, if not millenia.
* see etigrail.com
Well....Chuck....If you think that "science" and the conclusions drawn from scientific research are devoid of political input, then you are ...chuck....a bit naive.
With "science-friendly" control freaks like Obama and the Press that supports him blindly, you may eventually be reduced to getting Science reports on the back of your Cereal box.
Perhaps the most important thing to realize here is that ultra advanced Beings are likely to be able to develop thousand - perhaps even millions - of qualified "earth like" planets if they can "freely" extract as much energy as they may need to do it. And, if time is not an issue for them, who can say what is possible or what is not? (A big space rock here plus a big chunk of space ice over there......let Us advance events a couple million years....)
My eyes really wont stop /cease to flow the streams of tears until you answers / considers me.
QUALIFY ME OH " LORD
Tshimangadzo ndou
Thank you very much ,thank you.
There is no doubt about intelligent life in the Universe. All life has at its core the absolute will to survive and to regenerate. It is not always successful but for the most part it does succeed. For more articles on the Universe and stories such as the cloak of invisibility, ET3 travel of the future, from NYC to China on the ground in two hours,also info on time travel disclosure go to
http://www.educatinghumanity.com
http://www.exopolitics.org/Report-ET%20Motivations-PF.htm
Beside the fact that this scientist on TED is extremely boring in exposing such an interesting subject, the article is nice and giving hope... Giving hope to those who don't know or feel yet that YES there are extraterrestrial beings out there, and YES there are other planets similar to ours, and NO we are not the centre of the universe, and NO we are not the smartest or the most advanced...
Thank you for the article, Mr. Salla.
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