NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Discovers Extraordinary New Planetary System | Hacker News Reader

NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Discovers Extraordinary New Planetary System

nasa.gov

60 pointscivilian9 comments

I'm going to be hanging on to the edge of my seat for the next two years, waiting and waiting for that most incredible and exciting announcement! I can just hear it now: "We have found seven Earth-mass planets orbiting sun-like stars in the goldilocks zone. One of them is 15 light years away"

Exoplanet discovery is by far the most exciting thing happening right now. In any field. It's incredible!

I know what you mean. Every time I hear something like this (but especially when it's within 10s of light years) I think "Time to bring back Project Orion!"

There's a Kepler Mission Ops Controller answering questions on reddit right now:

http://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/fe0ps/ive_done_this_b...

Interesting comment on reddit about Earth like planets:

As stated above, I don't see the data... However, I feel I can say beyond probability that yes, there are a LOT of goldilocks planets waiting for verification. I am unsure of the amount, but I would be surprised if it were less than Order[1000]. You bet it detects planets that small :)

Someday humankind will colonize the galaxies, but by the time we get there we won't give a tinker's damn about "habitable planets". Interstellar travel is not for protein minds.

It's interesting with Kepler that the majority of peoples interests lie in finding a planet which has the potential to host life as we know it, whereas for the scientists on the project and those doing follow up observations every system discovered like this is essentially rewriting the assumptions on planetary formation.

I was really sad to hear that it was 2,000 light years away. However, this discovery still helps us understand what planetary systems are possible.

At this point, it really doesn't matter how far anything is - with the tech available to us in the here and now, anything more than a few years' journey (at conventional speeds even, not in lightyears) is just too far.

Whatever breakthrough it is that'll let us get half a lightyear away will get us to 2,000 lightyears away. But until then, nada.

Think of all this as an over-eager child researching what his parents (errr, Santa, I mean) will get him for next Christmas 11 months from now - planning and fantasizing about every last detail, even though there's just no rushing it.

Whenever I see these news releases, I instinctively look to see if there's an earthlike planet, or a likely candidate, and feel let down if there isn't one.

I guess I'm ready to go!

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