%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
Items to fit into your overhead compartment |
| From Big Think, a bit about stuff in space. Confirmed at last: exoplanets found around nearest single star  Barnard’s star, the closest singlet star system to ours, has long been a target for planet-hunters. We’ve finally confirmed it: they exist! Couple of things right off the bat: First, the "nearest single star" thing might be ambiguous; the nearest star to the Sun is the appropriately named (for now) Proxima Centauri, but it's in a triple-star system. Two, Barnard's Star doesn't have a Latin or Arabic name because it's too small (about 1/5 the size of the Sun) and faint to see without a telescope, so it was a more recent discovery. Presumably by some guy named Barnard. And third (I know I said "couple;" so what), it's roughly half again as far away from us as the Centaurus triplet. That out of the way, the discovery of exoplanets there is cool, and a testament to scientific tenacity. After more than a century of searching, and a couple of prominent false positives, we’ve finally discovered that it does have planets of its own, after all. Here’s the story behind the discovery. The article indeed goes into the story, which is a good example of science being self-correcting. Barnard’s star was also the alleged site of the very first claimed exoplanet detection: all the way back in the 1960s. That claim, as noted, didn't hold up under further observation. That's nothing new in astronomy. Hell, early planet searches focused on our solar system, and there were even spurious sightings of the hypothetical inner planet they dubbed "Vulcan," not to be confused with the fictional one Spock is from, before those were found to be in error. But we shouldn’t be discouraged by “false detections” in our search for bona fide planets around other stars; just because a scientific endeavor like planet-finding is difficult doesn’t mean we should assume that there aren’t any planets at all! Instead, we should demand that we get better data, and use that data to actually determine whether there are planets present or not, and if so, what their properties are. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, we were pretty certain about extrasolar planets existing long before one was detected. But it's always good to have confirmation. And mistakes often lead to refined methods, which, in this case, paid off. Well, probably. It needs to be confirmed independently, too. This would represent a fascinating find, if confirmed. First off, these four planets would be just a little interior to the so-called habitable zone of its star: where a planet with an Earth-like atmosphere would have the right temperatures for liquid water on its surface. And this is where many readers might get a case of runaway imagination. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but none of the above should be stretched to "there's a habitable planet around Barnard's Star," which in turn leads to speculation about alien civilizations or, worse, the assumption that "habitable" means "we could move there," which it absolutely does not. The point isn't that we shouldn't be looking for aliens; we absolutely should. But let's remember that liquid water is necessary, but maybe not sufficient, for life as we know it, and, above all, that life doesn't have to produce the kind of species that builds telescopes and rockets. In other words, no, we haven't found Earth II. Even though there are reasons to disfavor the notion that these planets might have Earth-like atmospheres, or any substantial atmosphere at all, it’s a remarkable feat to detect them at all. And that's the real point here. While I like science fiction as much as the next person, and more than most, I don't like seeing the popular media sensationalizing discoveries like this. The truth is sensational enough. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
