Hot Jupiters May Indicate Hospitable Planets 162
eldavojohn writes "An interesting article from National Geographic points out that other solar systems which contain planets like a 'Hot Jupiter' have a higher chance of also containing Earth-like planets." From the article: "'We now think there is a new class of ocean-covered--and possibly habitable--planets in solar systems unlike our own,' Raymond said. The simulations also showed that rocky planets known as hot Earths may often form when hot Jupiters push material forward during their inward treks. But hot Earths, which can be up to five times bigger than our Earth, orbit closer to their stars and are not likely to support life. Even if water does contribute to their formation, most hot Earths probably end up dry, study co-author Raymond says. "
Title inconsistent with summary (Score:3, Funny)
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For instance, I wonder if it might occur that a hot Jupiter and Sun might form peculiar kinds of Lagrangian points where debris may coalesce into habitable planets.
Perhaps this planet could remain in a perpetual eclipse of the hot Jupiter, allowing earth-like temperatures to exist.
It would be easier to tell... (Score:2)
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Considering that most astronomy and astrophysics is publicly funded, including the software development, one would think this software would be publicly available.
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L2 ( the only shady one ) is not stable. Sorry.
More Lagrange (Score:2)
Read the article first please (Score:4, Informative)
If you read the article, it's a bit more clear than the summary apparently was for you.
The article is saying that as Hot Jupiters migrate inwards, they temporarily disrupt the belt of debris in the habitable zone of a forming solar system. Then, after the Hot Jupiter has passed through, that debris has a chance to coalesce into habitable, Earth-like planets. In addition to this (and this is where careful reading and good reading comprehension skills come in handy), Hot Earths can be formed when Hot Jupiters push some material forward with them during their inward migration. From the article: (Emphasis added.)
Better Article(s) (Score:2)
A better one (IMHO) can be found here [rockymountainnews.com], and mentions that that Raymond et al's paper is in the current issue of Science
There's also a summary in Science Now [sciencemag.org].
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The recent vote does not equal consenseus.
There is no logcal reason for it not to be a planet.
Personally, I don't think it should be included as a planet;However telling my young daughter that Pluto may no longer be considered a planet made her cry. Based on that I might rethink my position.
Interestingly enough, Charon qualifies as a planet under the new definition.
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Space... the Final Frontier (Score:4, Funny)
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My misread (Score:2, Funny)
That would be Hot Venus! (Score:1)
Hot Jupiter you like a BBW.
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What an amazing exclamation! (Score:3, Funny)
Earth is here (Score:2)
Among a billion and billion of stars, it is statistically likely to find a planet or two to have just the right condition to hold water at the right temperature. Proof? Look at our planet.
An interesting idea, in any case.
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Oh but you run into the problem (or just case) of Anthropic Principle [wikipedia.org].
Had the conditions on Earth or in our local or even macro-universe levels had been any different perhaps we wouldn't be around to notice.
Only those places in the universe that support not only life, but the evolution of intelligent life... Or at least in
Very strange, how unlikely (Score:2)
Considering that Earth-like planets may have been created billions of years before our own, I don't think it very probable that we would be the first, unless intelligent life is very unlikely to happen. For instance, how about the rather improbable asteroid collision that scientists believe killed the dinosaurs. If it had not happened, Earth could have had intelligent life 50 million years
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Or maybe it never would have happened. Mammals only dominated because the dinosaurs died. Mass extinctions are good for ecological diversity because they are almost always followed by an explosion in new types of species.
"Given all that, I think the lack of ETs on Earth is due to one of two possible causes: either
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Yes, that too. Certainly a much more likely cause than the "interdict theory", because if it takes thousands of years to reach a planet, law enforcement will not be a likely deterrent...
Still, it's a bit depressing to think that simple physics limitations will keep us bound to our planet forever. I prefer to think that, given a sufficiently advanced technology, speed of light will not limit us. Get close enough to light speed and any trip wi
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Isn't it more the case that if they were to TELL us they were coming over to earth via radiowaves, he 'wouldn't be here for 50,000 years', but given that he can get to earth in, say, 5 minutes, why would he send a radio message in the first place, given that he'd beat it? It would APPEAR to the alien that they were on earth '50,000 years on' if they checked a telescope before they travelled, and compared the visual outcome when
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I'm afraid it is the case. Check out the Twins Paradox [wikipedia.org] for details.
but given that he can get to earth in, say, 5 minutes
It would be 5 minutes according to the travelling alien's wriswatch, 50,000 years according to anyone observing the spaceship from the outside. (I'm presuming his spaceship can only go near-lightspeed, not faster than light... if that is possible, then all bets are off :^))
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I've often wondered if this is true, or not. Maybe they did develop intelligence, but after many million of years, and a few global calamities, the signs just aren't there anymore, or we don't recognize the signs, or we haven't found the few signs that yet remain (new species of dinosaur are still being discovered after all). How much human civilization would be still exist, let a
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Is it impossible that an intelligent civilization preceded us? Not entirely. But "they didn't use the resource because they had a pure-biological technology" is pretty unlikely (and might well also manifest itself in obvious ways in the genetic record) by very simple economic argum
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I never said anything about an advanced technological civilization, merely that they could have evolved intelligence. How much resource consumption does a stone age civilization really use compared to our more advanced civilization? Maybe they stopped at rocks and slings and clubs. None of those tools require much resource consumption. Many primative societies used tools made from animal bodies and plants. Again,
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Some of them had evolved into almost perfect killing machines.
Very scary, and a classic (no pun intended) to be sure.
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There's an easier explanation: space is big. Really, really big. You have no idea how mind-bogglingly vast interstellar distances are. As Adams says, it simply doesn't fit in the human imagination. Perhaps even
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Pedantic Philosophy Talk (Score:2)
See the general problem behind defining extra-
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That assumes many things which shouldn't be assumed. Just because FTL travel exists in almost every modern SF show doesn't mean that it's possible. Sapient life could actually be common but we wouldn't know about it if very few, if any, species make it no farther than their own solar system. And then there's the War of the Worlds syndrome, which all t
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That's exactly how I feel. But, as I mentioned in another post above [slashdot.org], there is at least one way to travel to remote places in a short subjective time that does not violate our current knowledge of physics.
One should never forget how the Pony Express [wikipedia.org] was created more than twenty years after the telegraph had
200 billion Earths (Score:2)
If you agree with that premise, then there is an estimated 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe; therefore, we can estimate there is 200 billion places similar to Earth.
Worst story title...EVAR! (Score:2, Insightful)
But of course if you can get more hits for advertising on
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I think they may be talking about two different things (Hot Earths and Normal Earths).
Don't be so quick to judge (Score:5, Informative)
It amazes me how some folks are so quick to judge something that they actually wind up demonstrating their own ignorance (or inability to comprehend a slightly confusing science article, take your pick).
There's a perfectly good word for rocky worlds (Score:5, Informative)
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth are all terrestrials. Rocky worlds, as opposed to gas giants or icy bodies.
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Re:There's a perfectly good word for rocky worlds (Score:5, Informative)
Not exactly. [thefreedictionary.com] I think you're looking for terrestris, which means earthlike in Latin.
Re:There's a perfectly good word for rocky worlds (Score:4, Funny)
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While its more accurate domain-specific jargon, its really not any more communicative to anyone else, I mean in
common use [reference.com]? it means pertaining to, consisting of, or representing the earth as distinct from other planets, which is pretty close to precisely the opposite of the distinction you are trying to make here, and the natural interpretation from the etym
You must be new here... (Score:5, Funny)
These scientists, however, are talking about "Hot Earths" -- which would be "Class L" planets.
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Not to nitpick, but are you sure they wouldn't be class B planets instead?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_planet_clas sifications#Class_B_Geomorteus [wikipedia.org]
Young planets, Class B worlds are less than 10 billion years old. Their diameters range in size from 1,000 to 10,000 km. They are located in the hotzone region of a star's solar system. Their surfaces are partially molten and may feature active volcanoes wit
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Oddly enough, the error here isn't in my understanding of the planet classification system used in Star Trek; rather, my understanding of TFA in the first place (hey, I glossed over it; this is
I think this goes to prove that current science still has a lot to learn from Michael Okuda and his bretheren!
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So, yeah, not such a good substitute. Nice try, though.
Author's blog: (Score:1, Informative)
Sign up now (Score:4, Funny)
Step 2) Sell acreage on said worlds
Step 3) Profit!
There is no ??? here, it's a pure goldmine. I have to hop on this right away (PATENT PENDING PATENT PENDING PATENT PENDING).
Once I run out of acreage on discovered planets, I'll just start selling space on the next discovered one.
C'mon you know you want a beach house in an entirely different galaxy (nevermind that the beach overlooks an ocean of magma).
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Are you kidding me? thats a plus in my book!
--Capt. Magma
100% offtopic (Score:5, Funny)
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In fact, I usrg all readers of
Hot Titans? (Score:3, Interesting)
Has anybody exhaustively explored the concept?
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Re:Hot Titans? (Score:4, Funny)
I got tired just thinking about it.
More seriously: of course not
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We like to look at things and say "what if?" Sometimes we forget that's all it is though, people start taking sides and you end up with lots of excitement over some random thought or observation.
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Did you read the article? It's quite good for a science article (it is in National Geographic rather than some newspaper). The title has the word "could" in it and the article explains how the results are from simulations. Nobody's gone and published an article that says "all solar systems with big planets have other Earth's with intelligent life!" or anything.
But yeah, I guess scientists should confine
Re:Hot Titans? (Score:4, Interesting)
If those moons were at least as massive as Mars, and preferably Venus or Earth there might be a chance of this working. Titan has its volatiles because it is cold. Heat it up and you are left with a small rocky moon.
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Not counting Arthur C. Clark in 2010?
The drunk that is looking for his coin (Score:2)
So now we have found a buch of "Hot Jupiters", and not earths with water, and what do we do?
Well, we do just like the drunk that
We must explore these planets (Score:2)
Who says inhabitable is really inhabitable? (Score:2)
Donny had an accident today and was exposed to the xenosphere out there. I'm starting to get a little worried here
because this morning he was still fine, four hours into the quarantine period but Walt says from what he's been
able to tell Donny has started coughing up bloody phlegm.
26.03.2137 2000 Entry #135812
Walt convinced me to let him take the portable xray into the airlock and took pictures of Donny's lungs.
From what I understand the situation couldn't be worse.
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you sicko.
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It works just as well the other way, too: Why is it that healthy people don't get digested and putrefied by bacteria, when corpses will be broken down in a few weeks or months? Because the human immune system has been refined over a long period to recognize and fight the particular organisms that continuously try to invade and digest our bodies. So w
The opposite is also true (Score:2)
The bacteria you talk about have also spent billions of years evolving here on earth, to attack the life forms that evolved with them. Our immune system [wikipedia.org] is also able to fight off attackers that
Of course Hot Jupiters have Hot Earths. (Score:2)
what is intelligent life? recursion (Score:2)
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Dogshit. Dogs in particular, pick up the human languages with ease. Not to an adult's level, but certainly to the level of some of the lower members of
The problem with most animal 'psychologists' is they cannot seem to understand that there is no motivation for the animal to behave in the way the rese
So "Pitch Black" was a decent artistic stretch? (Score:2)
Won't be planets according to the IAU definition (Score:2)
According to the new IAU definition of a Planet, an Earth-like planet must orbit our Sun. Due the IAU's poor definition of a planet (one that restricts the term to only objects that orbit our Sun) one cannot even refer to Earth-like planets around other stars because they cannot fit the IAU's new definition.
I wish this was a troll post, but it is not. It is am example of the pr
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Bruce
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Depends. What if his original hypothesis was the result of a divide by fish error? Proof, I tell you. Or at least 180 proof.
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Fuck you.
Re:Cool, confirms my hypothesis. (Score:5, Funny)
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Cool, this confirms how high I am! (Score:3, Insightful)
Love is such a hokey place to start. Why not shoot higher? Start with awareness, or consciousness, or reference, or division or some other abstract concept that ha
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Re:There has to be a joke somewhere here.... (Score:5, Funny)
Enough gravity, and you may not have a choice.
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