Posts
DEFINITIONS:
Extrasolar planet: a planet outside our Solar System (exoplanet)
HARPS spectrograph: the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher at the ESO La Silla 3.6m telescope is dedicated to the discovery of extrasolar planets.
Gliese 581g: The planet thought to be in the "Goldilocks" Range (a distance not to far away or not to close for there to be water in liquid form.) of the star
PICTURE: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/download/id/64311/name/___
SUMMARY:
The Article describes how a Swiss team of "Veteran Planet Hunters" said that an american team of astronomer's claims that they found a planet inhabitable for life to be false. last week, Francesco Pepe of the Geneva Observatory in Sauverny, Switzerland told the astronomers at the extrasolar planet meeting that his team had found that the "Goldilocks" planet might not exist. they had been recording data on the star to look at the telltale wobble that would mean the presence of a planet. The teams have said that they want to combine results for more complete data.
DISCUSSION:
I chose this article because I thought that it was interesting that there was a possibility of life on another planet and the controversies raised between different groups of scientists concerned with this topic. I think, for more complete data, the two groups should combine their data and wait for four more years when the planets have cycled again. This doesn't really relate to my life but I am really interested in life beyond our planet. These scientific findings could prove groundbreaking or could amount to nothing.
Questions:
1. In the VERY far future, would it be possible to reach this planet (if it exists)
2. Have scientists involved every had any controversy between each other --> they seem very reluctant to help each other and collaborate.
Resources:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64308/title/Existence_of_habitable_exoplanet_questioned
