NASA'S Annoucement

[brettdale]

So is the announcement, is that they have found a new planet outside
our solar system that is orbiting a sun in their solar system?

[brettdale]

2. Cheers

That explains it, I was stuck between thinking is is just a lecture on the exo planets
that have been discovered or...

They have found one exactly like Earth, that one day we could fly to and inhabit.

[Achilleaze]

4. Aliens!

You rang?

[pinboy3niner]

7. You're a little late

[Softail1]

5. Pluto?

I feel the announcement will have something to do with Pluto..maybe returning it to full planet status based on recent fly by data and photos...that would be nice, but kind of hoping for something bigger!

[FSogol]

14. "Pluto is equally cool" ICWYD

[Motown_Johnny]

10. Pluto isn't a planet and never should have been classified as one.

It also took about 2 years to reclassify it as a dwarf planet.

Don't get your hopes up about Pluto, that debate is over.



Besides, they said this is about exoplanets. That means it is about planets outside our solar system. Pluto doesn't qualify as outside our solar system.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Lots and lots of exo planets.

They've been known for quite a while now.

My son is in a graduate program and working on some sort of computer simulation to better find the exo planets.

This is not exactly breaking news.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. I do know from my son that they're beginning

to be able to figure out the atmospheres of some of those distant planets.

[Princess Turandot]

11. FWIW, per NASA's media page, the findings are under embargo by the journal Nature (until 1PM)...

so presumably, it involves a paper being published by them, relating to exoplanets. (As opposed to something scientists discovered last week.)

FYI For those who want to watch the 1PM news conference live online, there's coverage here: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
I assume that it will also be broadcast on their youtube tv channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NASAtelevision/

They do a good job with these most of the time i.e. the scientists they have presenting the findings usually do so clearly for a not-too-technical audience.

[greytdemocrat]

13. Cool stuff!

Can't wait to hear what it's about.

[Bear Creek]

18. Move

We might need to move there if the GOP makes Wall-E come true

[Bear Creek]

21. The Handmaids tale

Did you catch the Conservative Political Action Conference title of their discussion panel. "If heaven has a gate, a wall, and extreme vetting, why cant America?" You cant make this stuff up. But the highlight of the day was reading about the planets. All earth like and in the sweet zone. A few months ago they said they were receiving transmissions that could be from other than natural sources.

[JHB]

20. Seven planets, roughly Earth-sized, three of which are in...

...their star's zone where the conditions for Earth-like life are possible.

In planetary science terms, it's a Big Frakking Deal.

[Stellar]

22. Three planets in the Goldilocks zone.

[Tikki]

24. You do know..some Americans think the stars are just fairy dust and magic!!!

So it is nice when Scientist pop out into the open to surprise young minds
with facts and plans and hope.


Tikki

[KatyMan]

28. you win the internet

for like a month..!

[kimbutgar]

26. Can we send chump and all his supporters there to colonize and leave the rest of us sane ones

To save Our Planet earth?

Let them have their Ayn Rand bs world and live us the f alone!

[grantcart]

27. Seven planets and Trump banned travel from all of them.

[mikelewis]

29. Also Discovered is sort of a stretch...

The way they find these planets is by studying the wobble of the star around which the satellites orbit. While they could be right... they could also be very very wrong. They can't "see" these planets, they just know they're there... just like you know a rock is just under the surface of the water though you may not be able to see it... you have to study the effect and not the object. There's really no way to prove any of it... though it is wonderfully romantic.