New exoplanets identified that could potentially harbor life | Hacker News Reader

New exoplanets identified that could potentially harbor life

earth.com

57 pointskeepamovin22 comments

As cool as TESS is, the title is too clickbaity, the article has absolutely nothing to with planets potentially harboring life. It's just a press piece about how more exoplanets have been found. "The habitability of these planets remains a subject of further research."

Also, "These findings await confirmation by NASA, but the researchers are hopeful that future observations will provide definitive validation."

-"Chemistry lab creates new molecule, potentially a cure for cancer"

-"Man finds 1000 of ants in kitchen, potentially new species"

What exactly is unclear about the title?

“New exoplanets identified that could potentially harbor life”

The word “potentially” setup my expectations perfectly.

When I hear “potential” to harbor life, I think of “potential to harbor life greater than the mean exoplanet.” Otherwise like, why comment on it at all ?

Imagine headlines like “Farm sells latest batch of apples with potential to be a choking hazard.” Wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect the average lay reader to be wary of that farm’s output?

Well I think the problem is with how to interpret that word. The potential is there because these exoplanets are in the habitable zone near their respective stars. That’s the headline and the story: these planets could be habitable and neither the title or article make any claims that they could indeed have any life on them.

'Child born with potential to become a trillionaire' is technically true about any child, but barring some unique aspect of the child is an utterly meaningless headline.

Because it is meaningless bit of information.

I always like to self-cope by telling myself life other than us exists in a plane of existence/dimension that we cannot comprehend and that's why we haven't found anything.

Fingers crossed that we stumble upon another 3 dimensional carbon based lifeform though, can't even wrap my head around how that'd affect civilization, would certainly be a mindset altering change globally.

The actual paper is https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/528/2/1841/7589620?se...

Did anyone notice the stars in front of the planet in the image?

Probably AI generated.

Seems that I see that exact same news every year since at least 2004.

Suppose there is life on some exoplanet. Now what?

Invent warp drive?

Now there is the biggest incentive in human history to invest in long distance space travel and communication tech.

Before the americas were discovered by Europeans, sailing and travel tech was nothing compared to what it became after there was a new undiscovered area that caused for a major shift in the mindset of where to pool resources.

Put the Arecibo message on heavy rotation.

We watch each other carefully.

Do they have oil? If so, we must stop the terrorists there.

We eat!

at this point i believe we could get evidence of alien life in my lifetime. Exciting

Spoiler: There's no life on any of those planets.

aren't new exoplanets being discovered at a monthly if not weekly basis?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com